Final Boxscore (pdf)
Game Book

FT. MYERS, Fla. -- The North Florida basketball team completed a regular season sweep of Florida Gulf Coast on Wednesday night with a 76-62 win at Alico Arena behind a double-double from Beau Beech and strong offensive performances by Jalen Nesbitt and Demarcus Daniels.

With the win, the Ospreys (19-11, 11-2) moved into a share of the top spot in the Atlantic Sun Conference standings with the Eagles (21-8, 11-2) and own the tiebreaker for seeding in the upcoming conference tournament It was UNF's second double-digit victory over the preseason favorite FGCU and also halted the Eagles' 10-game win streak and eight-game home win streak.

For Beech the 22 point/13 rebound performance was his second consecutive and second career double-double. Jalen Nesbitt finished with 18 points including a stretch of seven straight points late in the first half to spark an Osprey surge, while Daniels tallied 10 of his 15 points down the stretch to secure the win.

Marc-Eddy Norelia paced a trio of Eagle scorers in double figures finishing with 19 points, with 14 coming in the first half. FGCU's senior laden starting five went 9-41 (22 percent) from the floor in the game including hitting just 4-of-19 (21 percent) from long distance. 

"I told the team before the game that this felt a lot like playing at Mercer a year ago when they had some long win streaks going," said head coach Matthew Driscoll, who has now led the Ospreys to record setting totals for overall and conference wins in a season. "I told them it would require us taking our games to a different level and that's exactly what they did tonight. I thought our guys really just played fantastic. For a stretch in the second half we seemed to be trading baskets with them and I thought we would just need to keep scoring to win, but our guys dug down and did a great job of getting stops down the stretch which allowed us to open up the lead. I was so proud of the way we guarded and rebounded tonight. Again, it was another tremendous team effort."

After holding a slight lead for much of the opening 10 minutes of the game, the Ospreys went through a bit of a drought as FGCU earned their largest lead, 27-19, on the strength of a 16-4 run. Beech ended the Eagles run with a three, then Nesbitt ran off seven consecutive points capped by an acrobatic three-point play to help UNF regain the lead.

The Ospreys would stay in the lead over the final three minutes of the half and seized a final piece of momentum when Dallas Moore nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer for a 39-35 lead at the break.

Moore got UNF started quickly in the second half as he opened the scoring with his second trey of the game on the Osprey's first possession. FGCU would use a 10-4 spurt to trim the North Florida lead to a single point, 46-45, with 15:20 remaining, but could never overtake the Ospreys as UNF led for the entire second half.

UNF would put the game away midway through the second half after an 8-2 spurt that included a pair of turnaround jumpers by Daniels pushed the lead to double figures. The Ospreys outscored the Eagles, 16-7, over the final 7 minutes to earn the important road victory.

For the game, UNF shot 49 percent while holding FGCU to 37 percent and the Ospreys posted a 42-32 advantage on the glass. In addition, UNF made nine three-pointers and limited the Eagles to just five including a 1-for-9 performance in the decisive second half..

North Florida concludes its regular season schedule on Saturday against Stetson at 7 p.m. in UNF Arena. A win over the Hatters would secure a share of the Atlantic Sun regular season title and also earn the Ospreys the top seed in the conference tournament. Prior to Saturday's game, UNF will recogize its senior class of Jalen Nesbitt and Devin Wilson.