Final Boxscore (pdf)JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The North Florida basketball team overcame a sluggish first half to outlast Trinity Baptist for an 80-72 victory Monday night at UNF Arena.
The Ospreys improved to 6-2 on the season with the victory while the Eagles fell to 2-6 following their sixth consecutive loss. The six wins marked the most in the opening month for UNF in the Division I era.
Junior
Dallas Moore paced a group of five players in double figures finishing with 20 points while handing out five assists. Fellow junior
Chris Davenport collected his second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go along with two assists, three blocks and two steals.
The senior trio of
Beau Beech,
Demarcus Daniels and
Trent Mackey rounded out the double digit performances finishing with 16, 13 and 12, respectively. Daniels also added a season best five blocked shots.
UNF was playing its fifth game in the last 10 days and the only home contest in a 17-day stretch. The Ospreys struggled to find any flow as Trinity Baptist got things going midway through the opening half and held as large as a seven-point advantage. The Eagles led from the 16:30 mark until Daniels drained a three-pointer with 41 seconds left to send the Ospreys into the halftime break with a slim 36-34 lead.
"With our travel schedule we did some different things in preparation for this game," said head coach
Matthew Driscoll. "It obviously wasn't a good decision for us because I felt like we came out very flat and lacking energy for much of the game. I am proud of the guys for grinding it out and getting the win. I thought our zone in the second half allowed us to speed up the tempo and helped us finally get some separation."
North Florida scored the first seven points of the second half and slowly built their advantage to as many as 15 points. The Eagles made a final surge in the closing minutes but a three-pointer by
Osborn Blount with 1:17 halted the run.
The Ospreys will now hit the road for a pair of games against teams currently receiving votes in the national polls. UNF visits LSU on Wednesday before closing the trip at Dayton on Saturday.
