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University of North Florida Athletics

Wajid Aminu drives the lane for a layup
Todd Drexler
80
Winner North Florida UNF
73
Jacksonville JVille
Winner
North Florida UNF
80
Final
73
Jacksonville JVille
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
North Florida UNF 31 34 15 80
Jacksonville JVille 29 36 8 73

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

Ospreys Outlast Dolphins in River City Rumble Overtime Thriller, 80-73


OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 80, Jacksonville 73
Records: North Florida (13-16, 7-7 ASUN) | Jacksonville (12-16, 5-8 ASUN)
Location: Swisher Gym (Jacksonville, Fla.)
The Short Story: Fueled by double-doubles from three players, the North Florida men's basketball team overcame a second half deficit and outlasted rival Jacksonville in overtime for an 80-73 road win at Swisher Gym on Wednesday night.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

NOTABLE NUMBERS
- Wajid Aminu led the charge for the Ospreys finishing with 20 points and 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year
- Garrett Sams added 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to secure his second double-double of the season
- Noah Horchler collected his ASUN leading 13th double-double after netting 11 points and 12 rebounds
- Jace Hogan topped the Dolphins performances with 26 points and 12 rebounds
- Game featured 11 ties and 16 lead changes
- Marked the first overtime game of the season for the Ospreys 

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half Notes
- Neither team led by more than four points through the opening nine minutes of the game
- The Ospreys scored 12 of their first 15 points in the paint paced by 7 from Wajid Aminu
- A three-pointer by Brian Coffey put the Ospreys up six, 18-12, with 11 minutes remaining in the half
- The UNF lead would grow to as large as seven, 29-22, following a three-pointer from Carter Hendricksen
- Jacksonville scored the next seven points to even the score before Garrett Sams hit a jumper to put UNF up 31-29 at the half
- Jace Hogan missed a pair of FTs with 0.1 seconds left in the half that would have tied the score at the break
 
Second Half Notes
- The Dolphins grabbed the lead out of the break, scoring the first four points
- Escobar drilled a trey to give UNF the lead back and added another triple moments later to expand the lead to five
- Following a put-back dunk by Horchler, JU rallied with an 11-2 surge that included a stretch of 9 straight points, building a 53-45 advantage with 9:35 left in the game
- Sams ended the Osprey drought with a three before Coffey dropped in a short jumper sparking an 11-0 run that put UNF back in front | Aminu scored a basket along with four points from Noah Horchler and a 3-point play by Sams in the run
- The two squads would trade the lead over the closing four minutes of regulation
- Down by two (64-62) with just under two minutes to play, Aminu hit a free throw and added a lay-up after a halfcourt bullet pass from Ivan Gandia-Rosa to give the Ospreys a one-point lead (65-64) with 30 seconds on the clock
- Jalyn Hinton missed a pair of FTs for JU before JD Notae made just one of three chances from the charity stripe with 16 ticks left to tie the score
- Horchler's turnaround jumper at the buzzer hit the back iron and sent the game into extra time

Overtime Notes
- Ospreys got baskets from Aminu and Sams to take the lead
- After a three-pointer by JU, North Florida answered with 5 consecutive free throws by Aminu (2) and Sams (3) and a lay-up by Escobar to take a 76-70 lead
- Another Dolphin trey cut the margin in half, but UNF closed the game out with four straight free throws from Gandia-Rosa to earn the win
- UNF went 9-for-9 from the free throw line in the extra session

INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- North Florida snapped a three-game losing streak versus Jacksonville while extending its current win streak to four games
- Marked the first game this season that UNF had three players with double-doubles
- Matthew Driscoll earned his 90th ASUN win moving him into 6th-place all-time in ASUN history for coaching conference wins
- Ospreys finished the ASUN season with a 4-4 mark on the road after the victory
- This was the 18th overtime game in program history | UNF improved to 8-10 all-time in OT with Driscoll moving to 7-2 in extra session games

LAST WORD
"Games at this time of year when you're playing to continue moving forward and do what you need to do, they are all toughness games. I thought for a good portion of the game they had the toughness and we didn't have what we needed. We talked about it at a timeout and at that moment you could see that they guys in the huddle that have been there before, like Wajid and Garrett, guys who have beaten JU before, they were the ones reiterating on the floor what was shared in the huddle. You could see we really raised our level. Going man-to-man was a huge part of the success we ended up having. Our zone defense was great, the problem was that we allowed 18 offensive rebounds and 27 second chance points. It's crazy because what I kept telling the guys during timeouts about what we needed to stop them from doing eventually proved to be the things that helped us get the win - second chance shots. Wajid had maybe the biggest rebound of the game, when he got an offensive board and instead of putting the shot back up, he passed it out and allowed us to run some more time off the clock. I give great credit to our guys toughness down the stretch. I can't be more proud of our guys for having that fight and spirit tonight." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida closes out the regular season with a pair of home tilts beginning Saturday against league leader Liberty at 5 p.m. in UNF Arena
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