North Florida Trips SSU Men

February 12, 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fl- North Florida scored six unanswered points in the final minute and went on to defeat Savannah State 67-57 at the UNF Arena.

The win snapped a 20-game losing streak for the Ospreys (2-22) which dated back to November 2007.

The Tigers were down 13 with 4:22 remaining but rallied to cut their deficit to 61-54 with 42 seconds left after a 3-pointer by Keron McKenzie.

UNF answered with Cortez Riley, Germaine Sparkes and Tom Hammonds all hitting two free throws each to increase their lead to 67-54.

Joe Flegler hit a 3-pointer for SSU (11-17) with two seconds left for the final points of the contest.

Cortez came off the bench to score 20 points for North Florida. James Grimball added 18 points and 15 rebounds and Hammonds chipped in 15 points.

The Ospreys shot 46.7 percent from the floor for the game and out-rebounded Savannah State 40 to 34.

SSU went 8-for-14 from the free throw line while North Florida connected on 22 of 36 attempts.

North Florida used a 9-2 run to garb a seven point lead in the first half but the Tigers stormed back to take a 27-23 lead just before the half.

SSU led 27-26 at intermission.

The Tigers led by three early in the second half before North Florida put together a 12-4 run to grab a 40-35 advantage with 11:37 on the clock.

Flegler had 18 points for the Tigers and Curtis Brown came off the bench to score 10 points. Jacksonville native Chris Linton had 10 rebounds.