Ospreys home winning streak snapped by NJIT
The 3-point shots wouldn’t fall for the University of North Florida on Saturday, and the Ospreys had no answer for NJIT forward San Antonio Brinson.
That combination ended UNF’s 10-game home winning streak as the Highlanders won 78-66 in front of 1,919 at UNF Arena.
UNF (10-9, 3-1), which entered the game leading the nation with 12.6 made 3-point shots, had a season-low of six, on 23 attempts, for a .261 percentage.
Brinson, a 6-foot-8 junior from Augusta, Ga., easily topped his previous career-high of 21 points when he lit up the Ospreys for 37 points, on 16-of-23 shooting. He added eight rebounds and five assists.
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NJIT (4-12, 1-2), which had lost 10 of its last 11 games, shot 64 percent, mostly on slicing drives against UNF’s zone and off turnovers. The Highlands outscored UNF 19-6 off turnovers.
Their victory also came two days after losing 68-52 at Jacksonville.
Wajid Aminu was the bright spot for the Ospreys, scoring a season-high 20 points. Ivan Gandia-Rosa and Garrett Sams had 11 points each.
“Great job by NJIT, from the top all the way to the end ... I though their guys were way more excited about being on the floor,” said UNF coach Matthew Driscoll. “Everybody loves to play us because everybody loves to beat us, and I thought their energy and effort, their ability to turn us over early really hurt us. To have the season they’re having ... just lost a tough game on the road a couple of days ago and dictating a game from start to finish.”
The Highlanders also won despite guard Zach Cooks, who entered the game leading the ASun in scoring at 19.9 points per game, getting only five points and just one field goal.
It didn’t matter as Brinson did most of the work in handing the Ospreys their first home loss since Feb. 6, 2019, against Lipscomb.
The Ospreys led only twice, the last time at 9-8. After that, Brinson scored 15 points over the remainder of the first half to give the Highlanders a 37-28 halftime lead.
NJIT built their margin to 18 points early in the second half. UNF staged a brief rally led by Aminu and Sams and cut the lead to nine points three times.
It was as close as they got.
“We have to be ready to play every game,” said Gandia-Rosa. “We have to go back and watch film of this and get back on track.”
“It should never be this way, where a team is more excited to play than another,” Aminu said. “Maybe because they lost a game and [were] searching for one, they were more hungry. It didn’t seem we were doing everything we could to be in the right position and not making easy turnovers and not giving them easy buckets. We have to correct that.”
UNF now has a difficult four-game stretch over the final two weeks of January that will go a long way in determining how strong a contender they will be in the ASun.
The Ospreys travel a few miles to Swisher Gym on Thursday to face the Dolphins in the first edition of the River City Rumble.
After getting next Saturday off, UNF will play host to Liberty on Jan. 23, play at 2018-19 conference runnerup Lipscomb on Jan. 25, then return home to play the improved Stetson Hatters on Jan. 30.
“We have to make sure one loss doesn’t turn into two,” Driscoll said.