Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- For the second time this season, the North Florida basketball team saw Tennessee Tech rally in the second half to claim a hard fought victory as this time the Ospreys fell 87-84 on the road in the Eblen Center.

UNF (7-7) trailed for much of the first half but made a surge before halftime to grab a lead. The Ospreys held the advantage for much of the remainder of the game until the Golden Eagles (8-5) used strong rebounding and some missed free throws by UNF to hold on for their sixth home win of the season.

"This is a tough game to lose especially since we scored over 80 points and again held a lead in the second half," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "We told the guys that games like this always come down to rebounding and free throw shooting and we didn't do either of them well enough tonight to get the win. The guys continued to battle, but we have to figure out how to do those little things that make the difference in close games."

The Ospreys were a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line in the first half en route to taking a 39-36 lead into the halftime break. However, UNF made just 6 of 14 from the charity stripe in the second half while TTU converted on 13 of 15 in earning the victory.

North Florida had four players in double digits led by sophomore Dallas Moore's 20-point effort. It marked his team leading eighth 20+ performance of the season. Trent Mackey and Beau Beech each chipped in 18 points on the night with Mackey continuing his hot shooting from long distance making 6 of 7 three-point attempts. Chris Davenport rounded out the double figure scorers with 12. Senior Jalen Nesbitt finished with a career best 11 rebounds to go along with nine points, four assists, two blocks and three steals in a strong overall showing.

Charles Jackson led TTU with his 10th double-double of the season highlighted by a career best 28 points and 16 rebounds.

After both teams struggled to get on the board through the first several minutes of play, Tennessee Tech edged ahead and led by as many as five points midway through the opening period. The Golden Eagles would maintain a lead until Demarcus Daniels slammed home a rebound with 5:17 left in the half to give UNF its first lead of the game, 29-28. The Ospreys would push their advantage to six points, 37-31, but TTU scored six of the final eight points to trim the UNF margin.

Just five minutes into the second half, North Florida had built a seven-point lead, 49-42. Tech slowly chipped into the Osprey lead and eventually knotted the score at 55 with 12 minutes left to play. Mackey answered with a trey to put UNF back in front as the teams settled into a back-and-forth style of play. Beech hit a three-pointer for the Ospreys followed by three straight treys from Mackey as the UNF lead pushed back to six, 70-64, with 7:48 left.

Over the next two minutes, Tennessee Tech rallied with a 9-0 surge to retake the lead, 73-70. The Ospreys would battle back to tie the score at 75, but were unable to regain the lead over the closing four minutes of competition.

North Florida continues its current six-game road swing on Wednesday with a game against Austin Peay on Wednesday afternoon in Clarksville, Tenn.