OPENING TIP
Score: #2 North Florida 73 , #3 Lipscomb 71
Records: North Florida (21-12) | Lipscomb (16-15)
Location: UNF Arena (Jacksonville, Fla.)
The Short Story: No.2 seed North Florida rallied from a double-digit second half deficit but No. 3 seed Lipscomb got a floater to fall in the closing second to escape with a 73-71 win Thursday night in ASUN Tournament semifinal action at UNF Arena.

GAMEDAY MEDIA CENTER
Final Boxscore

BY THE NUMBERS
- Carter Hendricksen led the Ospreys for the second straight game with 19 points | He went 6-for-14 from the floor and made three three-pointers
- Wajid Aminu finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds and three blocks
- Every Osprey that saw floor scored at least two points with the UNF bench outscoring Lipscomb, 19-8 | Ryan Burkhardt made an impact off the bench hitting all three of his triple attempts
- Ahsan Asadullah and Andrew Fleming recorded 27 and 26 points for the Bisons, respectively | Fleming's points were a career-high and included the game winner | Asadullah finished with 19 rebounds
- Lipscomb shot 50 percent from the floor and 42 percent from long range, while UNF hit 43 percent, but struggled from long range, going just 9-for-31
- Ospreys handed out 15 assists and matched a season low with just six turnovers

NOTABLE MOMENTS
- Hendricksen opened the game with a triple, but from there the Ospreys were playing catch up for the first half
- Lipscomb used a 13-5 run in the early goings of the first half to lead 17-10. North Florida continued to chip away at the Bisons lead with an 8-2 spurt to trail 29-26, but the visitors answered right back with their own run to take a 37-28 advantage
- Ivan Gandia-Rosa had the Ospreys final bucket of the first half but Lipscomb hit a banked-in three-pointer as time expired to take a 42-33 lead into the half
- After trading baskets to open the second, UNF jumped on a 16-4 run, fueled by a pair of triples from Ryan Burkhardt and five points from Aminu to take the 53-51 lead with 11:06 to play
- From there, neither team would lead by more than three points down the stretch
- North Florida had a couple opportunities to expand a lead late in the game but were unable to hit the game breaking bucket
- In the closing seconds, Fleming hit the game-winning floater through traffic to give Lipscomb the victory and a trip to Sunday's ASUN Championship game at Liberty 

 
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- North Florida upped its nation-leading 3PM total to 391 for the season getting 3PM from five different players
- Lipscomb held the edge on the glass, 38-30, but only converted nine second chance points on nine offensive boards
- The game featured 11 lead changes and five tie scores 
- The loss was the Ospreys first to the Bisons in ASUN Tournament play | It was also only the second home loss of the season for UNF

LAST WORD
"This group had a very, very special season. The one thing I don't want to hear and this has nothing to do with us 'living and dying with the three pointer'. All we did differently in the second half was play the way we normally play, because in the first half we didn't do that. We were fortunate that the lead wasn't larger at the half. It grew to 10 in the second half, but we knew if we continued to be us that we would be able to control and contain Asadullah (20 points in first half, 7 in the second) and down some things on the defensive end that would lead to us getting offense. To our guys credit, they believed it and came out in the second half and performed it. We had really good looks down the stretch, we just weren't able to grow the lead larger than three. Give them credit, Asadullah is good at finding people and Fleming, a Jacksonville kid, cut back door and hit a big time shot. I'm very proud of how we played especially in the second half. There is a disappointment right now because we were one basket short of where we wanted to be but our guys definitely competed. If you're a college basketball fan, you had to have enjoyed this game because it was an intense battle between two very, very good teams. We just have to move forward and see what happens with postseason play and how this senior class closes out their careers." -- Head coach Matthew Driscoll

NEXT UP
North Florida, the co-champions of the ASUN with a record of 21-12, now await a possible invitation to postseason play in one of several national tournaments.