Final Boxscore (pdf)JACKSONVILLE –
Beau Beech scored a career high 33 points including 18 in a second half rally that saw the North Florida basketball team earn a 93-78 victory Saturday night over Kennesaw State at UNF Arena.
The Ospreys (15-6, 4-0 Atlantic Sun) overcame a 14-point first half deficit to extend their current home win streak to 17 games while remaining undefeated in league play this season. The win also marked the 13th in a row against the Owls (5-14, 1-2), who stayed winless on the road this season.
Beech was a perfect 4-4 from the three-point arc in the second half and finished with a team-leading seven treys in the game.
Dallas Moore chipped in 24 points for the Ospreys while
Chris Davenport notched his fourth double-double in the last five games after tallying 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Trent Mackey also reached double figures, scoring 14 points highlighted by four treys.
Kendrick Ray scored 21 points to pace the Kennesaw State offense with Yonel Brown adding 17 in the loss.
"Tonight was a great team victory," said head coach
Matthew Driscoll. "At the start of the game, Kennesaw came out with great effort and really took it to us. It was another chance for our guys to respond with the poise and endurance they've displayed all season long. I thought we finally got our focus right on defense and turned those stops into a much better flowing offense. In the second half we really operated well on both ends of the floor."
KSU got out of the gates early behind the solid play of their dynamic duo of Ray and Brown, who accounted for 13 and 14 points, respectively. The Owls grabbed a 12-5 advantage before the first media timeout of the game and then used an 8-0 spurt minutes later to widen the lead to double digits.
With Kennesaw State leading 45-31 with five minutes left in the opening stanza, North Florida slowly began to chip away at the deficit. Beech started an 11-0 run with a layup followed by nine straight points from Moore as UNF closed the gap to 45-42 with just under a minute remaining. KSU would hold a 47-42 advantage at the halftime break.
Early in the second half, an eight point spurt by the Ospreys gave them their first lead of the game, 52-51. After a quick trade of the lead, UNF scored another eight points in a row to grab a lead they would never relinquish. The Owls tried to keep things close but North Florida eventually pushed the lead to double figures with Beech capping off a 51-point second half explosion with a three-pointer to beat the shot clock in the closing seconds.
The Ospreys will next hit the road for a pair of tough Atlantic Sun Conference tilts at USC Upstate (Jan. 21) and NJIT (Jan. 23).
