Men's Basketball on Wrong End of Scoreboard at Wright State

Saturday, November 17

Dayton, Ohio

3:00 p.m.

University of North Florida

1-3

Wright State

3-1

North Florida

Wright State

Photo by: Joseph Craven

11/17/2018 8:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 72, Wright State 89
Records: North Florida (1-3) | Wright State (3-1)
Location: Nutter Center (Dayton, Ohio)
The Short Story: Despite a season best total from the three-point line and four players in double figures, the North Florida men's basketball team dropped an 89-72 decision on Saturday afternoon at Wright State.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Juniors Noah Horchler and Garrett Sams both netted team high scoring totals of 16
- Horchler narrowly missed his third double-double of the season, pulling down 9 rebounds
- Sams matched his personal best with four assists
- Ivan Gandia-Rosa (13) and Ryan Burkhardt (10) also reached double figure points
- All five Wright State starters tallied double digits led by 20 pts/9 rebs from Loudon Love | WSU had a total of 6 players with 10+ points
- North Florida was whistled for twice as many fouls as the Raiders, 28-14, with WSU going 24-of-34 from the charity stripe
- #BirdsofTrey connected on a season best 9 treys in the contest
- Wright State outrebounded UNF, 37-25, including an 11-5 advantage on the offensive glass

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- The opening five minutes featured a seesaw effect on the scoreboard with both teams taking turns with the lead
- Wright State used a 21-4 run over a six-minute span to grab the momentum and a 30-14 lead
- Noah Horchler hit a basket to halt the run and then scored 2 of the next 3 buckets for the Ospreys to keep the margin stable
- A 7-0 spurt for the Ospreys including free throws from Garrett Sams, a trey by Ivan Gandia-Rosa and a lay-up for Horchler trimmed the deficit to single digits (41-33) with just over a minute left in the period
- The Raiders earned a three-point play in the closing seconds for a 44-33 advantage at the half
- UNF actually outshot WSU from the floor, 44.8% to 43.8%

Second Half Notes
- The two squads settled into a back-and-forth flow early in the second half with Wright State maintaining a double figure lead
- Midway through the stanza, WSU mounted an 11-0 run which allowed their lead to balloon to 20 points
- North Florida refused to quit and continued to battle to the final buzzer, but were unable to get closer than the final margin

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- North Florida made 6 of 11 three-point in the second half (54.5%)
- UNF attempted 16 free throws (made 13) compared to 34 attempts (24 makes) for Wright State
- Noah Horchler stuffed the stat sheet, tallying three blocks, two steals and an assist to go along with his near double-double
- Sams extended his season open double-digit scoring streak to four games
- Burkhardt scored double figures for the first time in his career
- Ospreys have now dropped four straight road tilts (0-3 this year)

LAST WORD
"Our play this season has definitely been in spurts. Good spurt, bad spurt, good spurt, bad spurt. When you play in spurts, that means your inconsistent and if you're inconsistent it is hard to win. It makes it hard to overcome when an opponent gets going and then we get several stops in a row to cut lead to single digits and we're right there. We are playing well but then we struggle to finish the job at the end of the half and its amazing how that affects the momentum. We have to find a way with this experienced to be consistent and not allow one bad thing to lead to two and continue to focus on doing the next right thing." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida battles Southern Miss on Tuesday (Nov. 20) in Cancun, Mexico as part of Mayan Division play of the Cancun Challenge.