Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  – The North Florida basketball team remained undefeated on the season following a 98-69 victory Wednesday night over in-town foe Edward Waters in UNF Arena.

The Ospreys improved to 3-0 marking the best start in the program's Division I era and most season opening wins since a 7-0 start in 1994-95. The win also marked the 99th of head coach Matthew Driscoll's seven-year tenure making him the winningest coach in program history. 

Junior Dallas Moore led a quartet of UNF players in double figures finishing with 24 points, which is his third consecutive 20-plus point effort. Senior Trent Mackey matched his career best with 22 points while fellow senior Demarcus Daniels had 18 and junior Chris Davenport added 12. 

Davenport posted his first double-double of the season pulling down a season-high 13 rebounds and also led the squad with seven assists. Moore and Mackey each tallied five assists with Moore upping his season total to 25 assists and just one turnover. 

The Osprey starting guard duo also combined to hit 11 of the team's 14 three-pointers in the contest as Mackey went 6-for-8 and Moore was 5-for-8. 

Edward Waters (3-4) was led by 24 points and seven rebounds from Oceann Maddox.

After trading baskets early in the first half, UNF quickly built a double-digit lead, 22-12, just five minutes into play. The Tigers would close the gap to five with just under 12 minutes to play before watching the Ospreys slowly build a 20-point lead just before halftime.

UNF led 57-41 at the break led by Moore's 17 points and Davenport's 10 point, eight rebound effort.

"I thought we got rolling pretty well in the first half," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "I felt like we lost some focus and played too casual on the offensive end in the second half but was proud of how we did some good things defensively. We had more turnovers in the second half tonight than we had in our first two games combined so that is something we need to figure out. Thankfully it's better to learn from a win instead of learning from a loss."

In the second half, UNF built and maintained a 20-plus point margin behind a strong defensive effort that limited the Tigers to just 28 points on 35 percent shooting. The Ospreys posted four blocks and three steals over the closing period but also committed 12 of their season high 14 turnovers.

North Florida next visits nationally-recognized Louisville on Saturday at Noon. The game opens up a stretch of four straight road games.