JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—A strong second half by North Florida led to the homestanding Ospreys pulling away to defeat the Bellarmine Knights 79-67 in what had been an extremely tight contest in the regular season finale for both teams.
 
Bellarmine's Achilles' heel was once again surrendering second chance points as the Ospreys hauled in 13 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second chance points.  The Knights, by comparison, turned in three offensive boards for just two second chance points.
 
"They're minus three on the backboards in conference play in their wins, and they're minus eight on the backboard in their losses," said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport about UNF's rebounding. "Tonight, they're plus 13, and the game is over. We shoot 53 percent and hold them to 48, but they get 13 more shots than we did.  It was a very disappointing effort."
 
The first 20 minutes of the contest was highly entertaining as the lead changed eight times and neither team could get the upper hand with Bellarmine going into the locker room with a slim 39-38 advantage. 
 
When play resumed, however, the ball started bouncing in UNF's favor and the Ospreys capitalized. "The first three minutes of the second half is unlike anything I've ever seen in basketball," Davenport said. "We turned the ball over four times…at one point we turn it over twice in 22 seconds."
 
The game featured 15 lead changes, but the poor start by Bellarmine in the second half led to UNF grabbing the lead for good at the 15:12 mark.  From there, the Ospreys gradually extended the advantage to double digits.
 
The bright spot for Bellarmine was the bench play from players who don't ordinarily see a lot of minutes.  Freshman Michael Bova tossed in a career-high 10 points in just over 12 minutes of court time, and Eli Roberts grabbed a pair of rebounds in limited minutes.
 
"Michael Bova played his heart out, and I should have played Eli more," Davenport said.
 
Freshman Peter Suder paced the Knights' scoring with 12 points, and he also dished out a team-high five assists. Ben Johnson added 11 points as the three freshmen (Suder, Bova  and Johnson) were the only double-digit scorers for the Knights.
 
It was senior night for North Florida, and the lone Osprey senior celebrated in a big way.  Mt. Sterling, Kentucky native Carter Hendricksen poured in a game-high 25 points while securing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists.  Jarius Hicklen and Jonathan Aybar added 14 apiece for UNF.
 
Bellarmine ends the regular season 14-17 with a 9-9 mark in league play.  The Ospreys finish 14-16 with and identical 9-9 ASUN record. 
 
Due to their win in the head-to-head competition, UNF gets the No. 7 seed in the upcoming ASUN Championship tourney while Bellarmine will be the 8-seed.  As such the same two teams will square off in the first round of the tourney on Monday night.  That game will take place at the home of the No. 2 seed, which is Liberty.  The winner of the next Bellarmine-UNF game will advance to the ASUN quarterfinals and play Liberty on Tuesday night.
 
ASUN TOURNAMENT BRACKET