Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Behind a double-double from Jalen Nesbitt and a career high output by Trent Mackey, the North Florida basketball team cruised to an 83-65 road victory at Florida A&M on Friday night in the Lawson Center.

The Ospreys (7-5) snapped a two-game skid and collected the 100th victory in the program's 10-year NCAA Division I history. The win also marked the 80th for head coach Matthew Driscoll in his six-year tenure at UNF. FAMU, playing in their first home game of the year, slipped to 0-10 for the season with the loss.

Nesbitt, a senior, finished with career highs in both points (20) and rebounds (10) in earning the first double-double of his career, while Mackey, a junior, matched his career best total scoring 22 points highlighted by five three-pointers. Mackey's other 22-point effort also came in Tallahassee against Florida State in the 2012-13 season.

Sophomore Dallas Moore finished with 17 points and six assists and Beau Beech chipped in 11 points.

FAMU's Jermaine Ruttley and Dalvin Roberts each finished with 15 points to pace the Rattlers attack.

"It is always great to get wins on the road," said Driscoll. "This was a big win for the team as it not only gives us the most non-conference wins in the Division I era for a season, but also marked the fewest games needed to reach seven wins in program history. I thought Jalen was very solid and played like he's capable of playing every night. We got a huge lift from the bench including Trent's scoring a the all-around play of Devin Wilson, who had six assists and three rebounds. We again struggled getting defensive stops in the second half so that is definitely something we need to work on and figure out. We just need to continue improving and developing."

UNF raced out to a quick lead scoring the first seven points while keeping the Rattlers off the scoreboard for the opening three minutes. The Ospreys would widen their margin midway through the first period as a Mackey trey and a thunderous dunk by Chris Davenport capped a 9-0 surge that put UNF in front 28-10, with five minutes left in the half.

The Rattlers cut into the Osprey lead before UNF closed the half on a 10-4 spurt to hold a 38-21 advantage at the break. North Florida shot 58 percent (14-24) from the floor and made 5-11 three-pointers (45 percent), while holding FAMU to just 26 percent (8-30) and allowing them just 1 of 7 from long distance.

FAMU got things going following the break, using a 9-1 run over the opening few minutes to trim the Osprey lead to single digits, 39-30, with 17:27 left to play. UNF would quickly push the lead back to double figures and grabbed their largest lead of the night, 62-41, with just over nine minutes on the clock. The Rattlers would get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way as the Ospreys maintained the momentum to post their third road victory of the year.

The Ospreys shot 52 percent from the floor in second half but allowed FAMU to shoot 62 percent. UNF did force 17 turnovers in the game and blocked four shots.

North Florida concludes its busy stretch of four games in eight days on Monday with a game at Iowa. The game will mark the team's final competition before taking a break for Christmas.