Final Boxscore (pdf)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The North Florida basketball team saw six players reach double digits led by 16 points each from Dallas Moore and Nick Malonga as the Ospreys remained unbeaten in Atlantic Sun Conference play after a 78-62 victory Thursday night over USC Upstate at the Hodge Center.

The Ospreys (16-6, 5-0 Atlantic Sun) claimed their fifth consecutive win and have now opened the conference play 5-0 for the second straight year. The victory also snapped a five-game skid for UNF at the Hodge Center and ended the Spartans (7-14, 1-3) five game home win streak.

Malonga was 6-for-10 from the field including a pair of threes in netting a career high. The sophomore newcomer also collected six boards and had a pair of steals. Moore handed out five assists and scored 12 of his points in the first half for UNF.

Beau Beech and Chris Davenport both narrowly missed double-double performances as the pair each finished with 10 points and nine rebounds. Davenport also handed out five assists and swatted a career best six shots. Trent Mackey drilled a trio of treys en route to 11 points while Demarcus Daniels added 12 points and six boards.

Upstate's Michael Buchanan scored 31 points to lead all players, but the Osprey defense limited the Spartans to just 3 of 10 shooting from long distance and also turned 12 turnovers into a 19 points. 

"Our defensive stops really allowed us to get into a flow at times offensively," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "Our guys are really competitive and I was proud of their effort and fight tonight. We did a good job of getting lots of folks involved and to have six guys in double figures is pretty amazing. It is always great to win on the road, but we still haven't played a complete game."

The two squads took turns holding the lead early in the contest before the Ospreys grabbed the momentum with a 10-0 run midway through the period to take a 21-15 lead. Malonga scored five straight points to fuel the spurt.

Aaron Bodager would hit a three with seven minutes left in the half pushing the UNF advantage to double digits for the first time in the game.  Behind the inside play of Buchanan, Upstate trimmed the margin to just three before back-to-back treys from Daniels and Moore helped the Ospreys take a 39-32 advantage into intermission.

Five quick points to start the second half extended the UNF lead back to double figures and drew a quick timeout for USC Upstate just over a minute into play. A 14-4 surge by the Spartans closed the gap to two, 48-46, with 12:24 left on the clock but the Ospreys answered with an 11-2 run of their own including six points in a row from Malonga to regain a double-digit margin that they wouldn't relinquish. 

North Florida next concludes it's A-Sun road weekend with a game Saturday at league newcomer NJIT in Newark, N.J.