Florida State Outlasts Ospreys, 75-67

Wednesday, November 21

Tallahassee, Fla.

7 pm

University of North Florida

1-4

Florida State (FSS/ESPN3)

4-1

North Florida

Florida State

Photo by: Todd Drexler

11/21/2012 10:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The North Florida basketball team rallied from a sluggish start battling Florida State to the final buzzer in a hard fought 75-67 loss Wednesday night at the Tucker Center.

UNF (1-4) fell behind 16-3 to the Seminoles (4-1) over the first six minutes of the game but refused to quit and never trailed by more than 14 points at any point the rest of the game.

Senior Parker Smith made four of the squad's nine three-pointers en route to a team high 20 points. Freshman Beau Beech finished with 12 points, marking his second straight double digit performance, while junior Travis Wallace chipped in 11. Beech and Smith also shared team honors with five rebounds each while senior point guard Will Wilson tallied five assists and four steals.

All-American candidate Michael Snaer scored 21 points and had eight boards to pace the Seminoles.

"One thing I can count on with our guys is that they are going to compete," said UNF head coach Matthew Driscoll. "I thought we did a good job of limiting them from the three-point line and battled on the glass. We just had a few open shots slide out. Hopefully we can build on this performance and continue to grow as a team. I know that if we continue to compete with this level of intensity that we will win our share of games this season."

After falling behind early, the Ospreys used an 8-0 spurt to cut into FSU's double-digit advantage. Beech connected on one of his three treys on the night with 4:07 left in the first period to pull UNF within six, 26-20. The Seminoles carried a 32-24 lead into the halftime break.

The Ospreys cut into the FSU quickly in the second half, pulling within four, 41-37, just four minutes into the action. Snaer would turn back the UNF charge connecting on back-to-back treys giving Florida State some breathing room.

The 'Noles would push their lead back to double digits and went up 62-48 with 8:36 remaining before North Florida again made a charge. This time UNF outscored FSU 10-2 over a four minute span to close the gap to six, 64-58. The Ospreys would get as close as five points twice in the final three minutes but the Seminoles converted free throws down the stretch to hold off UNF.

For the game, North Florida forced 17 Florida State turnovers and held the Seminoles to just 2-10 (20 percent) shooting from the three-point arc. UNF finished the game making 9 of 33 treys (27 percent) and converted 12 of 15 free throws (80 percent) compared to 23 for 28 (82 percent) by the "Noles.

North Florida will take a brief break from competition for Thanksgiving before returning to action next Tuesday (Nov. 27) at Bethune-Cookman.