JU’s Jennings, UNF’s Lambert coaching in their first River City Rumble
For the first time in the history of the University of North Florida vs. Jacksonville University rivalry in women’s basketball, both coaches will be getting their first experience in the River City Rumble.
Erika Lambert of UNF and Special Jennings of JU are in their first seasons and experiencing many of the same growing pains in trying to turn around their respective programs. But a key component would be winning the crosstown rivalry, with the first two games this season coming on Saturday at 2 p.m. at UNF Arena.
“Our young ladies who are back from last year have talked to us about the rivalry, about whoever wins it runs the city,” said Jennings, whose Dolphins (512, 1-3) had a rugged preseason that included games at defending national champion LSU, Alabama, Miami and Florida State. “Anytime you can have a rivalry like this, it’s good for both teams and good for the city. It will make for a great game every time we play them. Games like this are where the competitors come out.”
The Ospreys (7-11, 1-3), also had a daunting non-conference schedule, with games at Florida, South Florida, Gonzaga and Kansas State. Lambert pointed out that the UNF-JU rivalry is the only one of its kind in the ASUN.
“The way conference alignments are going doesn’t really depend on geography anymore,” she said. “To have a rivalry like this is getting rare and that makes it special for both universities.”
Both teams have similar ASUN results
JU holds a 26-14 lead in the rivalry, with more than half of those victories coming during a 14-game winning streak vs. the Ospreys from 2013-2019.
Since UNF ended that seven-year domination, they’ve won six of nine against the Dolphins. The teams split last season, both winning at home.
Under the ASUN scheduling format, JU and UNF have played the same four opponents in the first two weeks, with the same results: both have beaten Queens on the road, and lost to ASUN coleaders Kennesaw (on the road) and Florida Gulf Coast (at home), and have also lost at home to Stetson.
JU and UNF lost by lopsided margins to Gulf Coast but were competitive in their other losses.
The Dolphins lost to Stetson by six and to Kennesaw by two, while the Ospreys lost to Stetson by four and Kennesaw by nine.
Dolphins defense led by Garrett, Battle
Lambert said she’s been impressed by JU’s tenacity on defense, led by guards Sana’a Garrett (first in the ASUN in steals at 2.1 per game and Edyn Battle (eighth, at 1.8 per game).
Battle leads JU and is second in the conference with 18.7 points per game. Freshman forward Saniyah Craig leads the Dolphins and is tied for fourth in the ASUN with 7.1 rebounds per game.
Jennings appreciated Lambert’s comment about JU’s defense to some extent, pointing out that her team has given more than it’s taken away — the Dolphins are last in the ASUN in turnover margin at minus-3.59.
“We’ve got to find a way to keep forcing turnovers but not giving up as many,” she said. “But our chemistry is getting better. We’ve got a lot of different young ladies from different places and we’ve got
to get everyone on the same page. It seems like some are on page 1, others on page 7 and the staff is on page 10. We’re playing solid defense and we’ve to get better at limiting second-chance points.”
UNF striving for complete games
Lambert is going through the same issues in installing her philosophy on a rebuilding team.
“We’ve struggled to put together complete games,” she said. “We’re either strong on offense or defense. When we share the ball and eliminate turnovers we can score pretty efficiently.”
Senior guard Lyric Swann leads UNF in scoring with 11.4 per game and junior Kaila Rougier is next at 10.9 per game. Graduate senior point guard Jayla Adams is averaging 9.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game and senior forward Emma Broermann is averaging 7.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.