Missed Opportunity for Men's Basketball at Minnesota

Tuesday, December 11

Minneapolis, Minn.

9:00 p.m.

University of North Florida

Minnesota

Team	1	2	F
North Florida	34	37	71
Minnesota	35	45	80

Photo by: Todd Drexler

12/12/2018 12:41:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 71, Minnesota 80
Records: North Florida (4-6) | Minnesota (9-2)
Location: Williams Arena (Minneapolis, Minn.)
The Short Story: In a game undecided until the closing minutes, the North Florida men's basketball squad saw its chance to secure a road win over a Power 5 Conference program slip away as Minnesota held off the Ospreys for an 80-71 victory on Tuesday night at Williams Arena.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Garrett Sams led the Ospreys with 13 points including 6-6 FTM
- Wajid Aminu added 10 points along with a career best 7 blocked shots while Noah Horchler narrowly missed a double-double finishing with 9 pts/10 rebs
- Jordan Murphy had 20 points/18 rebounds in leading the Gophers who also got a double-double from Daniel Oturu (13 pts/11 rebs)
- Isaiah Washington tallied the non-traditional double-double for Minnesota, tallying 14 pts and 13 assists
- Minnesota claimed a 52-35 advantage on the glass paced by 23 offensive boards
- Gophers were 27-39 from the FT line while Ospreys went 11-12 from the charity stripe
- Game featured 11 lead changes and 7 ties

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- Ospreys held the early advantage highlighted by a pair of treys from Ivan Gandia-Rosa
- With UNF leading by three, Minnesota used an 8-0 run to earn their first lead of the game, 16-11
- The Gophers would push their advantage to 7 (22-15) before North Florida slowly chipped away
- An 8-2 spurt that saw baskets from four different players allowed UNF to eventually even the score at 27-27
- Trip Day snapped a personal 0-11 slump from the arc with a three-pointer at the 1:00 mark that gave the Ospreys a 34-31 lead
- Minnesota got a pair of FTs and a putback jumper at the buzzer to seize a 35-34 halftime advantage

Second Half Notes
- The game remained a one-possession contest for the first six minutes of the period
- A pair of runs (6-0/7-0) by Minnesota saw the margin grow to eight, 60-52, with 8:57 left on the clock
- Brian Coffey drilled a three sparking a rally that saw the Ospreys pull within one, 65-64, at the 5:12 mark
- JT Escobar had five points in the surge to go along with a basket from Wajid Aminu and a pair of FTs by Coffey
- Five straight points by the Gophers over the next two minutes extended the lead and Minnesota made its final six free throws to secure the win to remain undefeated at home (5-0)

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- All 10 players that got in the game for UNF netted points
- Ospreys connected on 8 treys with seven different players hitting a shot from distance
- Aminu's 7 blocks were a career high and most by a UNF player since Romelo Banks swatted 5 shots vs Stetson in 2016-17 | Total also matched a school record and was the most in the program's Division I Era
- Sams has now reached double digits in all but one game this season
- North Florida finished with more assists (16) than turnovers (13) for the fifth time this year
- UNF defense limited the Gophers to just 1 of 15 (6%) shooting from the three-point line

LAST WORD
"If you told me before the game that Minnesota would have 52 rebounds including 23 offensive, 23 second chance points and shoot 39 free throws, I would have told you this game wasn't very good for the Ospreys. The fact that it was a one possession game late in the game just shows the ability and capability of this team. We showed a great deal of fight but in the end you have to be able to close games. We talked about that earlier today, that we have to learn how to remain focused and sustain for the entire game. We weren't able to do that and down the stretch we had three straight empty possessions due to turnovers. Great thing is we have an early flight to Miami to play at FIU on Thursday so we have to wash this out quickly and get ready to compete again. We have to keep moving forward." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
The Ospreys continue their stretch of three games in five days with a match-up against FIU in Miami on Thursday night.