Ospreys Beat Bisons in ASun Debut, 84-70

Monday, December 31

Jacksonville, Fla.

4:30 pm

University of North Florida

6-8, 1-0ASUN

Lipscomb

5-7, 0-1ASUN

Lipscomb

North Florida

12/31/2012 9:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Paced by five players in double figures, the University of North Florida basketball team used a late game surge to claim an 84-70 victory over Lipscomb at UNF Arena in the Atlantic Sun Conference opener for both squads.

The Ospreys (6-8, 1-0 ASun) outscored the Bisons (5-7, 0-1) 22-8 over the final seven and half minutes to post their third consecutive league opening victory. The win also marked the progam's 40th conference victory and was the 50th UNF win for head coach Matthew Driscoll.

Junior Travis Wallace, the reigning ASun Player of the Week, continued his strong play leading the Ospreys with 24 points and eight rebounds. It marked his 11th consecutive double-digit performance and fourth straight game with 20 or more points.

Freshman Beau Beech chipped in a career best 17 points while senior Parker Smith added 16. Andy Diaz finished with 12 and Charles McRoy had 10. Senior Will Wilson handed out 11 assists in pacing the Osprey offense to a 50 percent shooting performance.

LU's Malcolm Smith led the way for the Bisons in the loss finishing with an 18 point, 13 rebound double-double.

"I was proud of the resilency we played with tonight, "said Driscoll. "All season long we've consistently shared the ball and gotten our guys good looks for shots. Twenty assists on 31 buckets is a sign of a team doing thing right. Our defensive stops, especially in the second half, were the key for us. I thought BaeBae (Daniels) really provided us with a spark with his great energy."

The two squads battled back and forth through the opening 10 minutes, before Lipscomb tallied three straight baskets to build a six-point lead, 27-21, with 6:13 left in the period. Wallace scored the next eight UNF points to keep the Ospreys in it and UNF reclaimed the lead, 32-31, after Smith dropped in a three-pointer with 2:18 on the clock. Beech, who connected on a team best five three-pointers, drilled a trey at the buzzer sending UNF into the halftime break with a 36-33 advantage.

Lipscomb raced out the break scoring the first six points as part of an opening 15-6 spurt that pushed the Bisons in front, 48-42, less than four minutes into the action. The Ospreys chipped away at the deficit and eventually rallied behind an 11-0 surge keyed by baskets from Diaz and McRoy and capped by another trey from Smith.

LU made a final push to knot the score at 62-62 with 7:27 remaining but three straight baskets for Wallace opened the decisive closing run for the Ospreys who never trailed again and led by as many as 15 points down the stretch.

North Florida concludes its conference opening home stand Wednesday when the Ospreys welcome league newcomer Northern Kentucky to UNF Arena. The game tips at 7:30 p.m. and will be carried live on ESPN3.