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University of North Florida Athletics

Wajid Aminu dunks the basketball
Todd Drexler
61
Charleston So. CSU 4-6
68
Winner North Florida UNF 5-7
Charleston So. CSU
4-6
61
Final
68
North Florida UNF
5-7
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Charleston So. CSU 26 35 61
North Florida UNF 24 44 68

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | North Florida Athletics

Men's Basketball Sweeps Charleston Southern with 68-61 Victory


OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 68, Charleston Southern 61
Records: North Florida (5-7) | Charleston Southern (4-6)
Location: UNF Arena (Jacksonville, Fla.)
The Short Story: Paced by double-doubles from Noah Horchler and Wajid Aminu, the North Florida men's basketball team remained undefeated at home and earned a season sweep of Charleston Southern with a 68-61 victory on Saturday night at UNF Arena

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Noah Horchler continued his dominating play, posting his sixth double-double of the season with 22 points and 10 rebounds
- Wajid Aminu also tallied a double-double (13 pts/10 rebs) while Garrett Sams joined the board party with 10 rebounds of his own
- JT Escobar reached double digits, scoring 14 points
- Dontrelle Shuler finished with 20 points of the bench to lead the Bucs in the loss
- UNF defense limited CSU to 29% from the floor and held them to a 4-of-23 (17%) performance from the three-point line
- Ospreys recorded 20 assists on 22 baskets and overcame a season high 27 turnovers

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- North Florida seized the early momentum after registering the first six points of the game
- CSU answered with a six-point run of their own later in the frame to earn the first tie of night, 13-13
- JT Escobar assisted on a layup by Noah Horchler and converted a fastbreak himself to regain the lead for UNF
- A 9-2 spurt by the Bucs placed the Ospreys in a 5-point hole (24-19) with four minutes left in the period
- UNF's deficit grew to six before they closed with the final four points of the half to trail 26-24 at intermission
- Both teams shot under 40% from the field in the opening 20 minutes and combined for 2 3PM (UNF 1-12/CSU 1-6)
  
Second Half Notes
- The Ospreys swooped back into the lead quickly in the second stanza, scoring the first 8 points as part of a 15-3 run that gave UNF a double-digit advantage (39-29) just five minutes into play
- Charleston Southern refused to give in and used a smothering press to force multiple turnovers allowing them to trim the margin to three with 12 minutes left on the clock
- Trip Day netted a three-point play to spark a 10-0 spurt by UNF that also included a thunderous dunk by Wajid Aminu and a short jumper from Norchler before Ryan Burkhardt closed it out with a three-pointer
- UNF maintained a near double-digit lead for most of the rest of the contest, but a 6-point spurt in a minute, had the Osprey lead at four, 61-57, with 1:07 remaining to play
- North Florida converted several free throws including four straight from Escobar in the closing seconds to hold on for the victory

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- UNF earned a pair of victories over CSU this year despite committing 52 turnovers
- Charleston Southern collected 18 steals
- North Florida got 60 of its 68 points from its starting five in the game
- Horchler, Aminu, Sams each tallied 10 rebounds accounting for 30 of the team's 46 boards in the contest
- Ospreys improved to 3-0 at home this season and extended their current home win streak to 6 games
- CSU scored 28 points off UNF turnovers
- The Bucs remained winless on the road this year

LAST WORD
"This is a huge, huge, huge victory. Sometimes, I think people don't understand the day-to-day toughness that these guys have to go through Folks don't understand these guys traveled to Minnesota for a game, had a 3:30 AM wakeup, got into Miami late and weren't able to practice on the floor. Then played FIU and rode the bus home to get back at four in the morning and having to prep for a game against a team like Charleston Southern, that is really talented and makes you play in a very mucky way, and then playing that game at 5 p.m. I don't think our guys get the credit for the resiliency, mental toughness and their endurance to just keep moving forward. An old saying states that an ugly victory is better than a beautiful loss and there is a lot of truth to that. Give CSU credit because they didn't quit. We actually made some critical errors that hurt ourselves once we got the lead up to double digits and allowed them to kind of get back into the game. Their press was effective at times but you can't press if you don't score so early on our defense limited their scoring and allowed us to play offense in the open floor. We did a great job of sharing the sugar with 20 assists on 22 buckets, which reflects the amount of love these guys have for each other. I thought we showed consistent tenacity on the defensive end tonight." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
The Ospreys hits the road for the first of two straight games against Top 10 ranked squads when they travel to Tallahassee for a match-up with No. 10 Florida State on Wednesday.
 
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