After dropping two games in a row, the University of North Florida men’s basketball team took care of business against Edward Waters University on Nov. 21. The game ended with a final score of 108-59, with the Ospreys setting a program record for assists in a game with 33.

First Half

The Ospreys got off to a flying start with a 9-0 run in the opening two and a half minutes and never looked back. The lead grew to 22-8, courtesy of junior guard Kamrin Oriol, who drained two of his five three-pointers of the night on back-to-back possessions.

UNF’s defense was also on display, holding the Tigers to a shooting percentage below 30% through eight minutes. The first half finished with the Ospreys leading by a score of 54-24, thanks in part to 10 three-pointers, including three from both Oriol and senior forward Liam Murphy.

Second Half

In the second half, the Ospreys’ depth was on display, as nine of the 11 North Florida players who saw time in the second half scored at least one bucket. Senior forward Nestor Dyachok scored all 11 of his points in the second half, including shooting three out of six from beyond the three-point line. The UNF bench as a whole scored 35 in the second half, and 57 in total.

“You always want to have scoring coming off the bench,” said Osprey head coach, Matthew Driscoll, who’s entering his 16th season leading the men’s basketball program at UNF. “If you start all of your scoring, then when guys come off, now you’re putting guys who aren’t scoring… whereas these guys can come in and give us an immediate lift.” 

The Ospreys set a program record for assists in a game with 33, with sophomore guard Jaylen Smith leading the way with a career-high of nine.

Post-game Thoughts

After the game, freshman forward Josh Harris, who collected his first double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds, credited coach Driscoll for his performance.

“He’s very hard on me in practice,” said Harris. “Even when we’re not playing live… he’s still always on me to go hard… and to always put 100% effort in everything I do.”

Kamrin Oriol highlighted the importance of ball movement in his postgame comments.

“That’s what we do: drive, kick and get threes. It makes it easy because people get open when you move the ball,” Oriol said. “We saw that last game where we got away from that, and we saw how that affected us offensively… when we move the ball, good things happen.”