Ospreys Drop ASUN Road Debut at Lipscomb

Wednesday, January 9

Nashville, Tenn.

7:30 p.m.

University of North Florida

7-10, 1-1ASUN

Lipscomb

11-4, 2-0ASUN

North Florida

Lipscomb

1/9/2019 11:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 66, Lipscomb 81
Records: North Florida (7-10, 1-1 ASUN) | Lipscomb (11-4, 2-0 ASUN)
Location: Allen Arena (Nashville, Tenn.)
The Short Story: Noah Horchler notched his ASUN-leading eighth double-double while four other Ospreys netted double digits in a hard fought 81-66 road loss at Lipscomb on Wednesday night.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Noah Horchler finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds along with 2 blocks in the game | Horchler recorded his 8th double-double of the season
- Wajid Aminu, Garrett Sams and JT Escobar also netted 12 points to share team honors while Ivan Gandia-Rosa added 11 as the fifth Osprey in double figures
- Garrison Mathews led Lipscomb with 25 points and Eli Pepper tallied a double-double with 20 pts/11 rebs
- Teams combined for 40 turnovers (Lipscomb 21 | UNF 19)
- Ospreys connected on 10 three-pointers | The Bisons made 12 treys and shot 54% from the arc
- Lipscomb outshot UNF from the free throw line 18-5

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- The first 10 minutes of action featured eight lead changes with both squads flowing early offensively
- Garrett Sams was hot from long distance hitting his first two trey attempts
- A three-pointer from JT Escobar followed by a layup from Ivan Gandia-Rosa gave UNF its largest lead, 23-19, with 8;25 left in the period
- Following a Lipscomb timeout, the Bisons connected on three straight treys to regain the lead before scoring 13 consecutive points as part of a 22-5 spurt to close the half
- LU owned a 41-28 lead at the intermission

Second Half Notes
- The squads traded baskets on several possessions at the beginning of the final period
- North Florida began to slowly chip away at the Lipscomb advantage, eventually getting the margin to single digits 57-48 after back-to-back buckets from Wajid Aminu
- The Bisons would widen the lead only to watch the Ospreys rally back, pulling as close as eight points (70-62) after a three-pointer from Escobar with 4:15 left in the game
- UNF were unable to get any closer as Lipscomb ended the game with an 11-4 run

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- Loss snapped the Ospreys two-game win streak and marked just third win for Lipscomb in the last 11 meetings between the two squads
- All five North Florida starters reached double digit points
- #BirdsofTrey made 10+ treys for the third straight game and fourth time in last five contests
- North Florida defense forced 20+ turnovers for the second time in last three games
- UNF did not attempt first free throw until the 5:18 mark of the second half | Lipscomb missed same amount of FTs as Ospreys attempted in the game (5)

LAST WORD
"We had a great start with great energy, but the last eight minutes of the first half were the deciding factor of the game. To our guys credit, they bounced back in the second half and kept chipping away and got it to eight. However, (Garrison) Mathews just took over scoring like 8 or 10 straight to push the lead back out. I'm really proud that our guys understood that it's a long game and games aren't over in the first half. We just continued to compete but we have got to find a way to play a full 40 minutes because the stretch at the end of the half really hurt us. We have to just regroup and understand that we are 1-1 in the league and just played the number one team on the road. So we got that one out of the hopper. We now have a home game against FGCU and that's the most important thing right now for us to focus on." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida returns home for a Saturday clash with in-state rival FGCU in UNF Arena at 5 p.m.