Ospreys Rally for 102-96 Victory over Lipscomb

Thursday, January 11

Jacksonville, Fla.

7 p.m.

University of North Florida

1-17-12 | ASUN

102

Lipscomb

1-111-6 | ASUN

Lipscomb

North Florida

102

Ivan Gandia-Rosa drives the ball baseline against Lipscomb

Photo by: Todd Drexler

1/11/2018 10:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 102, Lipscomb 96
Records: North Florida (7-12, 1-1 ASUN) | Lipscomb (11-6, 1-1 ASUN)
Location: UNF Arena (Jacksonville, Fla.)
The Short Story: Paced by five players in double figures, the North Florida men's basketball team overcame a sluggish start to out run the Lipscomb Bisons for a 102-96 victory on Thursday night in UNF Arena. Ivan Gandia-Rosa finished with a career best 26 points while Noah Horchler notched his team-best fifth double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore PDF | Full Game Book

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Gandia-Rosa tallied his fourth 20-point outing of the season highlighted by a perfect 11-11 performance at the FT line
- Horchler's 15 rebounds marked a career high | Also swatted a personal best four shots
- Trip Day posted 13 points for his sixth straight double figure outing
- JT Escobar finished with 18 points (5-8 3PM) and a career high 6 boards, while Garrett Sams added 10 points
- Garrison Mathews led Lipscomb with 32 points and 12 rebounds while Rob Marberry chipped in 20 points and 9 rebounds

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- Lipscomb got out of the gates quickly using an 11-0 run to build a 13-2 lead just three minutes into play
- The Bisons maintained a near double digit advantage for much of the opening period
- Trailing 36-25 with 6:29 left in the half, North Florida trimmed into the deficit with a 7-0 spurt that included baskets from Osborn Blount, Trip Day and a trey from Garrett Sams
- The Ospreys kept battling and claimed their first lead of the game, 43-40, following an 8-0 surge that featured triples from Noah Horchler and Ivan Gandia-Rosa
- With the score tied at 43, Lipscomb scored five straight points in the closing minutes but Gandia-Rosa rained in a long range trey ahead of the halftime buzzer to cut the UNF deficit to just two points (48-46) at the break
- Mathews had 21 points for the Bisons in the stanza
- Both squads connected at better than a 50% clip from the floor (UNF 51.5 | Lipscomb 51.2)

Second Half Notes
- The score teetered back-and-forth over the first few minutes
- A 15-5 run by the Ospreys midway through the period allowed them to earn their first double-digit lead of the night, 67-57 | Run included six straight points by Horchler and also saw 3PM by Escobar, Gandia-Rosa and Blount
- UNF kept the pressure on building the lead to as large as 18 points (90-72) with 6:16 remaining
- Lipscomb responded with six consecutive points and then used a 11-2 run to close the gap to four points, 95-91, with just under a minute left to play
- Blount connected on a pair of FTs along with four straight from Gandia-Rosa to help UNF secure the ASUN home victory

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- Win marked Osprey's 4th straight over Lipscomb
- UNF overcame a halftime deficit in a win for the first time this year
- Gandia-Rosa produced his second perfect double-digit performance from the charity stripe (12-12 against FIU)
- Marked the fourth triple digit total of the season for UNF
- First 100+ point effort in ASUN play by the Ospreys since 107 points against NJIT on Feb. 18, 2016
- Was the 8th game this season that saw five UNF players reach double digits
- #BirdsofTrey finished with 14 3PM, marking the 12th game this year with double figure treys

LAST WORD
"The thing about when you get to league play is that every night is so critical. The key thing to focus on is where you were the last time and where you are headed to the next game. When an inexperienced team like we have is faced with challenges like we had (Wajid Aminu out and JT Escobar missing practices due to illness), the main points we are driving home is that you have to believe and you have to trust. I thought the guys really bought into that way of thinking tonight. To our guys credit, even though it go close down the stretch, they really had a run of dominate play during the second half. We just got stops and rebounds, blocked shots and then went down the other end and scored. The only thing we told them was we had to have energy and effort, got to communicate and execute and finally you gotta believe. The very last thing we told them at the last media timeout was that we have to be better finishers. We played and beat a really good team tonight. In the end, it is the players that make the plays that makes the biggest difference." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida concludes its current home stand Saturday at 7 p.m. against Kennesaw State.