Ospreys Soar Past Lipscomb for 71-59 Road Win

Saturday, January 28

Nashville, Tenn.

6:30 pm (CT)

University of North Florida

-1112, 55 ASun

Lipscomb

-1012, 55 ASun

Team	1	2	F
North Florida	45	26	71
Lipscomb	24	35	59

1/28/2012 9:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Boxscore (PDF)
Game Book

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The North Florida basketball team picked up a regular season sweep over Lipscomb with a 71-59 win Saturday night at Allen Arena.

The Ospreys (11-12, 5-5 A-Sun) held a 21-point halftime advantage and fought off a late charge by the Bison (10-12, 5-5 A-Sun) to earn their second straight win. The victory also marked UNF's fourth in their last five meetings with Lipscomb.

Parker Smith finished with 25 points and Matt Sauey added his second career double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) in leading a balanced Osprey attack. Andy Diaz also chipped in 12 points and eight boards for UNF.

Jordan Burgason led the way for Lipscomb finishing with 19 points including 15 in the second half.

UNF outrebounded LU by 10, 49-39, and held the Bison to just 31.7 percent shooting from the floor overall and 25 percent (6-24) from the three-point line. Both teams struggled handling the ball as the Ospreys committed 20 turnovers while forcing 19 by the Bison.

“Our guys really earned this win tonight,” said UNF head coach Matthew Driscoll. “I was proud of the focus we played with all night. The biggest difference was the job we did recognizing the strengths and tendencies of their personnel and then taking those things away. When we defend like this we are a really special team. The other major key was our ability to limit them to one shot possessions by grabbing lots of big rebounds.”

The Ospreys soared out of the gates outscoring Lipscomb, 24-6, over the opening 10 minutes of the game. The strong start included runs of 12 and 10 points, respectively. UNF maintained a double-digit lead for the remainder of the first period and led by as much as 25 points, 45-20, with a minute left in the half.

UNF held a 45-21 halftime lead behind a 26-4 advantage in points in the paint and a 15-3 lead in points off turnovers. Smith scored 14 points in the half while Sauey nearly had a double-double at the break with nine points and eight boards.

The Bison made a move early in the second half after scoring the first seven points in the frame. LU held the Ospreys to just five points through the first eight minutes of action but could only trim the UNF margin to 12 points.

The Ospreys kept a double-figure margin until Burgason completed a three-point play with 4:38 remaining to make the score, 61-52. A Burgason trey a minute later gave the Bison their closest move, but the Ospreys answered with a 7-2 spurt to regain control of the momentum and close out the victory.

North Florida concludes its current four-game road stretch Monday at 7 p.m., against league leader Belmont at the Curb Center.