OPENING TIP
Score: North Florida 51, North Carolina State 86
Records: North Florida (0-2) | NC State (2-0)
Location: Valvano Arena at Reynolds Coliseum (Raleigh, N.C.)
The Short Story: A trio of Ospreys reached double-digits on Friday night but it wasn't enough in a tough 86-51 loss to North Carolina State in the Mako Medical Wolfpack Invitational in Raleigh, N.C.

BY THE NUMBERS
- Carter Hendricksen, Jose Placer and Jadyn Parker each tallied 11 points to share team honors
- Parker, a native of North Carolina (Shallotte), posted the first double-digit performance of his career adding four rebounds and an assist
- Hendricksen and Placer both notched their second consecutive double figure outings | 
- Josh Endicott topped the team with 6 rebounds followed by Hendricksen with 5
- Four Wolfpack players finished with 10+ points led by 17 for Jericole Hellems | Manny Bates added 10 pts, 8 rebs, 5 blks

NOTABLE MOMENTS
- NC State got off to an early lead using a 13-3 game opening run
- Ospreys eventually settled down and trimmed the margin to 15-12 | UNF made just 1 of its first 7 shots before hitting 8 of its next 10 including a span of five straight
- The Pack pushed the lead back to double digits, 26-14, before a North Florida spurt highlighted by holding State scoreless for over three minutes saw the deficit cut to 31-26 with just over four minutes left in the half
- An 11-2 surge by the Wolfpack to close the period saw the Ospreys down 42-28 at intermission
- Despite a cold shooting start to the second half (0-7) for UNF, NC State could only muster a pair of baskets in the opening five minutes
- NCSU slowly widened their lead as costly turnovers and cool shooting hindered the Osprey momentum
 
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- 9 of 11 Ospreys got into the scoring column with all 11 players grabbing a rebound
- Freshman Chaz Lanier and junior Alonde LeGrand both earned their debut starting nods
- Freshman Jacob Crews, Jadyn Parker and Josh Berenbaum each connected on their first career three-pointers #BirdsofTrey
- Ospreys were just 2 of 4 from the FT line
- UNF boasted a 34-32 rebounding advantage 

LAST WORD
"When you play a schedule like ours that includes a stretch of three straight ACC teams (NC State, Miami, Florida State), it's tough for our guys especially since we've had a limited time to prepare for all the different types of things that these teams can throw at you. We are going to keep coaching these guys extremely hard and continue to help these guys learn and understand. We had some things snowball at the end of the first half but came out and had a solid opening stretch of the second half. We didn't make any shots but we were getting stops. I'm not into learning from losing and we just need to understand that we have to understand that communication is important every night. The room for error is extremely small and even more so against high level opponents. We have to continue to work in practice but even that's a challenge right now with how many games we are trying to squeeze in. I feel like the changes and improvement in our guys will be visible week-to-week with the way we have to install and instruct through this schedule." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida continues its season-opening road trek Sunday at Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.