Gutsy Men’s Basketball Effort Comes up Short at North Florida

Monday, November 11

Jacksonville, Fla.

7 p.m.

Georgia Southern University

1-2,0-0Sun Belt

North Florida

2-1,0-0ASUN

Team	1	2	F
Ga. Southern	33	44	77
North Florida	41	39	80

Isaiah Crawley posted career highs of 31 points and five assists along with five rebounds.

Gutsy Men’s Basketball Effort Comes up Short at North Florida

11/11/2019 9:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The Eagles play host to Radford Friday at 7 p.m. in Hanner Fieldhouse.

By: Marc Gignac

Postgame radio interview with Mark Byington

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – JT Escobar made 7 of 8 from 3-point range and scored 23 points, and Ivan Gandia-Rosa sank a pair of big free throws with 10 seconds to play as North Florida held off Georgia Southern 80-77 Monday night in UNF Arena.

Eagles of the Game
Isaiah Crawley scored a career-high 31 points, making 13 of 22 from the floor, and added five rebounds and five assists. Elijah McCadden scored a career-high 18 points and tallied six rebounds, and Quan Jackson registered 11 points, eight boards, three blocked shots and three steals.

Key moments
Trailing 78-74 inside the last minute, Calvin Wishart nailed a long 3-pointer from the wing with 12 seconds to go. The Eagles were forced to foul Gandia-Rosa, who made both free throws with 10.1 remaining. Wishart tried another long triple for the tie, but it rimmed out as the final horn sounded.

The Eagles (1-2) battled back from an early 10-point deficit and took a brief 59-58 lead on a Jackson 3-pointer from the corner midway through the second half. UNF responded with a 9-3 spurt to push the margin back to 67-61 with 5:45 remaining.

After a long triple from the wing by David Viti tied the score 31-31 late in the first half, North Florida (2-1) capped the stanza with a 10-2 spurt, keyed by Escobar's fifth triple. The Ospreys went to the free-throw line on six of their last nine possessions of the half.

Key stats
Due to injuries and a suspension, Georgia Southern dressed just seven scholarship players. North Florida made 15 3-point baskets and 10 two-point buckets. The Ospreys shot 15 of 28 for 54 percent from long distance.

Quotables from head coach Mark Byington
"I'm not discouraged with the way we competed. We got down a couple times and could have folded because we were undermanned. The seven guys we had played hard, and we're growing as a team. Some guys I can see are growing up right before my eyes. The difficult thing is when you are growing as a team, we have to do it in games like this against good teams. We're getting better and we have to go through some things like this to get there."

On having a short bench
"We were able to do most of the game plan; we just weren't able to do it as long as we wanted to. We turned them over when we were able to pressure them, but we couldn't sustain it. It would have been nice to have just one more guy to give us some minutes. I thought we had some good looks in the second half that didn't go down because we had tired legs."

On the last shot
"Calvin got a really good look at the end of the game. It's hard to get a good shot off against that zone with 10 seconds left, but he had a really good look and it seemed like it went all the way down and rolled out."

Next up
Georgia Southern returns to Hanner Fieldhouse for a two-game homestand, starting with a 7 p.m. contest against Radford Friday, Nov. 15. The Eagles also play host to Mercer Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m.