Final Boxscore (pdf)

JACKSONVILLE -- The North Florida basketball team made history Thursday night by earning their second straight Atlantic Sun Conference regular season title after topping crosstown rival Jacksonville, 81-80, at historic Swisher Gymnasium.

With the win, UNF not only won the regular season crown solely finishing with a 10-4 league mark but also earn the No. 1 in the upcoming Atlantic Sun tournament, which guarantees the Ospreys home games throughout the event. North Florida finished the regular season at 21-10 marking the most regular season victories in program history and also extended their win streak over JU (16-15, 8-6) to six games in collecting another River City Rumble barrel point.

Dallas Moore led the way for UNF scoring 22 points including 8 of the team's final 11 points in the first half, helping the Ospreys to a double-digit advantage. Demarcus Daniels added 14 points and Chris Davenport shipped in 10 points as both players topped the 1,000 point mark for their careers. Trent Mackey finished with 13 points, going 5-for-6 from the free throw line highlighted by a pair of free throws made with two seconds remaining to secure the victory, while Beau Beech also reached double figures in scoring 11 points. Davenport narrowly missed a double-double as he pulled down nine rebounds.

Kori Babineaux had 24 points and J.R. Holder added 23 in sparking a late charge by the Dolphins.

"I am extremely proud of our guys and the history they made tonight," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "We made it harder on ourselves than it should have been but I loved the way they really trusted each other and kept battling to earn a tough road victory. I thought in the final minutes, the guys really rose up and made some huge plays down the stretch to get the victory. We are thrilled to have accomplished one of our goals for the season and now turn our attention to the next phase of the year... postseason play."

The opening 10 minutes of the rivalry game were a back-and-forth contest with neither team owning larger than a three-point edge. The Ospreys widended the gap slightly over the next several minutes and then closed the half on an 8-2 spurt to grab a 49-38 lead at intermission.

UNF would maintain a double digit advantage early in the second half, building a lead as large as 18 points, 67-49, on a jumper from Daniels with 10:33 left to play. A couple minutes later, JU ran off 12 straight points in trimming the Osprey margin to five, 75-70, with 3:23 remaining. The Dolphins would keep fighting and eventually pulled within two points, 79-77, with 15 seconds on the clock.

Mackey was fouled with two ticks left and calmly drilled a pair of free throws to push the margin back to four, before Marcel White hit an uncontested three-pointer at the buzzer for JU to reach the final score.

The Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament begins play Tuesday (Mar. 1) with quarterfinal action. Top-seeded North Florida hosts No. 8 USC Upstate, at 7:30 p.m. in UNF Arena with tickets available for purchase online at UNFOspreys.com. No. 2 NJIT hosts No. 7 Stetson while Jacksonville, the No. 3 seed welcomes No. 6 Lipscomb and No. 4 FGCU hosts No. 5 Kennesaw State. (View Full Tournament Bracket)