OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 73, Stetson 65
Records: North Florida (10-14, 4-3 ASUN) | Stetson (10-14, 2-5 ASUN)
Location: Edmunds Center (DeLand, Fla.)
The Short Story: Wajid Aminu posted a double-double in his return to competition helping the North Florida men's basketball team to a 73-65 road victory at Stetson on Saturday afternoon. Aminu, who missed five games, scored 11 points and matched his season best with 12 rebounds.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore PDF | Full Game Book

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Ivan Gandia-Rosa led a quartet of Ospreys in double figures finishing with 15 points and 7 assists
- Noah Horchler just missed another double-double, tallying 9 points and a career high 16 rebounds
- Along with his 3rd dbl-dbl of the year, Aminu also notched a personal best 4 steals
- JT Escobar had 13 points and Trip Day netted his 11th consecutive double figure outing with 12 points off the bench
- Stetson had four players in double digits led by 18 from Divine Myles
- UNF limited SU to just 34% shooting for the game (15% on 3Pters) and allowed the Hatters just 9 baskets in the second half

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
-  North Florida jumped in front early using a 9-2 run to start the game | Escobar capped the run with back-to-back layups
- Stetson answered with an 8-1 run of their own to knot the score at 10
- The Ospreys grabbed the momentum following runs of 7-2 and 8-2, with the latter surge giving them their first double digit lead | Day was the catalyst of the run scoring 6 of the 8 points for UNF
- UNF built its largest lead of the period (39-27) with 1;33 remaining
- Hatters closed the half by scoring the final 7 points, trimming the UNF advantage to just 39-34 at the break
- North Florida shot 50% from the field despite making just 1 of 8 three-point tries

Second Half Notes
- Stetson opened the final period with a 9-4 spurt, tying the game for the third and final time at 43 with 14:49 on the clock
- UNF netted the next seven points, which sparked a 20-6 push that game the Ospreys the lead for good | All six Hatters points came from the FT line
- Osprey defense held Stetson without a field goal for over 12 minutes of play, as SU could only muster 11 FTs during the shooting drought
- The Hatters got as close as eight points late in the game but UNF connected from the FT line down the stretch to secure the victory

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- Ospreys have won two straight and 11 of the last 13 meetings with Stetson
- Win marked the 5th in the last 6 visits to Edmunds Center for UNF
- North Florida has now amassed double figure win totals in each of Matthew Driscoll's 9-year career (only had 9 seasons with 10+ wins in previous 17 years)
- Horchler's 16 rebounds is the third highest total in UNF's NCAA D1 era
- 5 3PM matches the season low total for the #BirdsofTrey
- UNF held an opponent under 70 points for just the second time this season

LAST WORD
"The one thing we talked about during preparation for this game was how critical it was for us to play defense our way and let the offense take care of itself and it did. The only thing that didn't equate or show up on the scoreboard was our offense clicking like it has clicked. This game definitely showed the guys that even if our offense isn't clicking, if we do what we are supposed to do on defense than we can win these kinds of games and even win them kind of convincingly. To hold an opponent without a field goal for 12 minutes is a great credit to our guys and a great credit to our guys rebounding down and limiting them to just one shot. When we have guys getting the kind of rebounding totals we had today its pretty impressive and reflects their buying into what we are doing. We just to keep going and continue working. We were 4-3 in the first half (of ASUN play) and start the second half Monday at FGCU." Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida travels to Fort Myers to face FGCU in a rematch on Monday. The game marks the start of the ASUN Conference second half and the end of the weekend in-state road swing for the Ospreys.