JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Newcomer Tesh Hanson and senior Claire Ioannidis led North Florida women's basketball to its opening day victory with a 71-60 win against Florida A&M on Friday afternoon at UNF Arena. 

TOP PERFORMERS
Tesh Hanson - 18 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals
Claire Ioannidis - 22 points, 6-for-6 3FG
Maiya Rumph - 7 rebounds, 6 points

QUICK HITS
- Ioannidis matches teammate Hadley Kiefer's 6-for-6 outing at Stetson in February 2016. It is also the top percentage for the ASUN as well with three others doing it prior.
- Hanson notched her first career double-double against the Rattlers.
- Each of the healthy Ospreys saw time in the game and 10 total players made at least one basket.
- It is the second straight year that Head Coach Darrick Gibbs led his team to an opening day win.
- UNF outshot the visitors 45.8 percent to 26.2 percent from the field and 57.1 percent to 19 percent from long range.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Ospreys outscored FAMU in all but the second quarter where the Rattlers owned a 15-9 edge. In the opening frame, UNF shot 50 percent from the floor, while holding FAMU to just 21 percent shooting. Ioannidis scored nine points on three treys and Hanson recorded six of her points in the first.  UNF ran out to a 10-2 lead before the Rattlers slowly chipped away to pull within 17-13, but a Sierra Shepherd three-pointers pushed UNF back out front 20-13.

Florida A&M opened the second on a 10-7 run to close that gap and eventually with a three-pointer from Florence Ouattara pushed the visitors to within 29-28 to end the half.

The teams kept it close through the opening minutes of the third quarter as each teams traded points with UNF coming up on the top side each time. Hanson helped North Florida push its lead to 51-43 with nine points in the third. In the final set, the home team grabbed a double-figure lead on a longball from Ioannidis to make it 57-46. UNF then used back-to-back baskets to take its biggest lead of the game at 61-46. UNF maintained its distance a pair of makes from the line pushed the Ospreys out front for the remainder of the game. 

Ioannidis and Hanson each scored 10 points in the second 20 minutes of the game, while Hanson and Shepherd each grabbed five boards. 

UP NEXT
North Florida takes to the road for its next contest as it travels south to USF on Tuesday. Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Tampa, Fla.