Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

JACKSONVILLE -- The North Florida basketball team scored 51 points in the second half, breaking open a close game with crosstown rival Jacksonville and earning an 86-63 victory in the team's Atlantic Sun Conference debut Saturday afternoon at Veterans Memorial Arena.

The Ospreys (9-9, 1-0 ASun) earned their third straight victory in the River City Rumble battle over the Dolphins (6-12, 0-1) while posting the largest margin of victory for UNF in the series. With the win, UNF improved to 5-1 in A-Sun openers under head coach Matthew Driscoll after posting their fifth consecutive opening victory with 80-plus points scored.

Sophomore Dallas Moore finished with 20 points to pace a quartet of Ospreys in double digits. Juniors Beau Beech and Demarcus Daniels finished with 17 and 16, respectively, while senior Jalen Nesbitt added 11 including a 9-for-9 performance at the free throw line. Sophomore Chris Davenport led the way for UNF on the glass finishing with nine rebounds followed by seven from Beech and six for Daniels.

J.R. Holder was the Dolphins' top performer tallying a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

"I'm so excited for and proud of these guys for just fighting for the entire game," said Driscoll. "We were able to overcome a slow start and made a bit of a run to close the half and then I thought we came out to start the second half and just turned things up. The second half of the game was very physical and I thought we won the battle down the stretch. Our focus has been to be 1-0 in every game we play in the conference so we accomplished that goal today. It was great to see the guys execute our game plan exactly how we prepared. We need to enjoy this and then get refocused again for the next one."

The start of the game featured several runs as the two squads took time feeling things out. Jacksonville made the first move scoring the first six points, but UNF answered with a 10-0 run to gain their first lead of the game. A 10-2 response by the Dolphins saw them regain a lead they would maintain and grow to  five points, 25-20, with 7:34 left in the first half.

From there, North Florida's defense held the Dolphins without a field goal for the remainder of the half as JU's final seven points all came from the free throw line. While turning things up defensively, UNF outscored JU 10-2 over the final four minutes to secure a 35-31 halftime advantage.

The Ospreys would seize control of the game early in the second half after scoring the first nine points of the period. UNF's run pushed the margin to double-digits and the Dolphins could only get as close as eight before a late 16-4 surge pushed the lead to over 20 in favor of the visiting Ospreys.

North Florida, who opens their Atlantic Sun slate playing four of five games on the road, will play their lone home game in the stretch on Wednesday against preseason conference favorite Florida Gulf Coast. The game is set to tip at 7 p.m., and will mark the debut of ESPN3 broadcasts from UNF Arena.