Ospreys make it 16 in a row at home

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Sparked by a career high 24 points from Trent Mackey and 21 points for Beau Beech, the North Florida basketball team claimed its 16th consecutive home victory with a 95-83 decision Thursday night over Lipscomb at UNF Arena.

The nation's three-point leading Ospreys (14-6, 3-0 Atlantic Sun) bettered the third-ranked Bisons (4-15, 0-2) from long distance, connecting on 13 and 12 treys, respectively. Mackey led the way for UNF connecting on a career best matching six, while Beech drilled four and also pulled down a team-leading 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.

UNF also got solid performances from the junior tandem of Dallas Moore and Chris Davenport. Moore tallied 19 points and handed out seven assists. Davenport, who entered the game with a streak of three straight double-doubles, almost made it four finishing with 17 points and seven rebounds despite battling leg cramps throughout the game.

As a team, North Florida shot 83 percent from the free throw line converting 24 of 29 attempts led by perfect performances from Mackey (6-6), Davenport (6-6) and Beech (5-5).

J.C. Hampton led the Bisons scoring attack with 21 points and Eli Pepper collected a game best 15 boards in helping Lipscomb to a slight overall rebounding edge, 37-33.

"Tonight was another great example of how resilient our guys are," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "Lipscomb is a tough team to play because they are able to stay in games because of how well they shoot from long distance. I told the team that the game would come down to how we guarded the arc and tracked down the long rebounds and I felt like we did that well for the most part. We have a veteran team and even when Lipscomb made a push in the second half, the guys never panicked and just stayed focused and made the plays that needed to be made. I was also proud of the way we bounced back at the free throw line after the last game."

The Ospreys drained their first three-pointer just four seconds into play and never trailed in the game against the Bisons. Lipscomb kept things close earlier in the opening half before UNF slowly extended the lead to double-digits. North Florida held a 44-33 advantage at the halftime break.

The offenses got flowing in the second half as both teams topped the 50-point mark in the final 20 minutes. UNF outscored the Bisons, 8-2, to start the final period and take its largest lead of the game 52-35.

UNF would maintain a double-figure advantage for a good portion of the half, but a 10-2 spurt midway through the frame allowed the Bisons to pull to within six pointns, 68-62, with nine minutes left to play. Beech halted the run with a three-pointer than added a pair of free throws and a lay-up as the Ospreys pushed back in front by double digits just two minutes later and never let Lipscomb trim the margin to less than 10 the rest of the way.

North Florida concludes its current three-game home stand Saturday night against Kennesaw State at 7 p.m.