Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- North Florida senior Jalen Nesbitt led five players in double figures finishing with a career best 26 points, as the Ospreys earned the season sweep of Northern Kentucky with an 88-69 victory on Saturday night in UNF Arena.

With the win, UNF improved to 18-11 overall and 10-2 in Atlantic Sun Coference play while NKU slipped to 11-16 and 5-7 in the league. The Ospreys continue to improve on the program record for overall wins in a season and have now matched the mark for the most A-Sun wins in a season, having reached 10 in three previous seasons including last year.

The point total for Nesbitt was just the second game of his career with 20 or more points and was highlighted by a first half performance that saw him score 15 of the team's 35 points.

Junior Beau Beech collected the first double-double of his career finishing with 12 points and a season high 10 rebounds, and fellow junior Demarcus Daniels added 15 points, seven rebounds and four blocks. Daniels is now just three blocks shy of setting a new UNF single season record for blocked shots.

Dallas Moore chipped in 13 points and five assists and Chris Davenport had 10 to round out the list of double-digit performers.

Chad Jackson was the Norse top performer finishing with 18 points, five rebounds and five assists.

"The guys played with great confidence especially from the eight minute mark of the first half until the end of the game," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "Despite some early struggles on the offensive end, I thought we were finally able to get stops defensively and turn those into points and then got into a real flow on offense. I can't say enough about the resiliency and focus of this group and I felt like tonight we again got another great team effort. We have put ourselves in position to control our destiny and reach the goals we set when the season started."

After scoring the opening bucket, UNF watched the Norse run off nine striaght points to grab the early momentum. The Ospreys would begin to chip away at the margin but were unable to take a lead as NKU remained ahead until back-to-back treys from Nesbitt gave UNF its first lead, 29-28, with just over a minute left in the first half. Nesbitt added a lay-up and two free throws before Trent Mackey ended the half with a putback rebound basket at the buzzer to send North Florida into the break up, 35-30.

Northern Kentucky fought its way back early in the second half and earned several ties through the first five minutes of play. An 11-2 spurt by the Ospreys capped by a thunderous dunk from Davenport pushed them in front 53-44 with 11:45 remaining. The Norse refused to go quietly and pulled within three points, 62-59, after a Dean Danos three-pointer at the 7:19 mark.

North Florida answered with a 12-0 run over the next three minutes and put the game away. Moore started the run with a pair of acrobatic layups followed by a trey from Daniels and a three-point play by Beech. Nesbitt closed the run with a pair of free throws at the 4:23 mark. Down the stretch, NKU got no closer than 13 as UNF cruised the the final margin.

The two squads entered the game as the top two shooting teams in the league and they lived up to that reputation as both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field, with UNF hitting at a 52 percent clip and NKU making 51 percent. The Ospreys outrebounded the Norse 30-28 and also turned 13 turnovers into 22 points.

Up next for North Florida is their final regular season road game on Wednesday against league leading Florida Gulf Coast. FGCU currently holds a one game lead over the Ospreys in the conference standings heading into the final week of the season.