An ice cold shooting night handed the North Florida men’s basketball team (5-8) an 85-51 loss to the Missouri Tigers (9-2) while on the road on Dec. 16.

With sophomore shooter Garrett Sams out with an ankle injury, St.Augustine native Ryan Burkhardt earned his first start.  

Despite having a slim opening in the leading minutes, the Ospreys struggled from the field and fell quickly behind to the SEC team. Down 16-6 early in the opening half, North Florida was forced to call a timeout as Missouri rolled on a dominating early run.

It wouldn’t be until there was 7:52 left in the half when the first three-pointer fell in for UNF to bring the score to 27-9. This broke a 0 for 12 skid of the usual three-pointer threat.

At the break, Missouri headed into the locker room with a 46-19 advantage over the visiting team.

When the second half resumed, the Ospreys continued to struggle from the floor. They missed several chances to add more points to their score as the gap grew.

Wajid Aminu and Noah Horchler hit the majority of the baskets in the half as they tried to chip away at the massive Missouri lead. Unlike the first half where seven shots swished from the court, UNF nearly doubled the completion with 13 shots made.

With the clock ticking down, the home team never relinquished the lead over the Ospreys in the half. Five Tigers had a double-digits night, and Jordan Barnett had a game-high of 18 points. Missouri made just over 50 percent from the floor for the game while knocking down 10 three-pointers.

Amimu finished with a team-high of 13 points while teammates Horchler and Ivan Gandia-Rosa added 10 a piece. North Florida only converted five out of 28 from downtown for a 17.9 percent completion rate. From the field, the Ospreys pushed the sluggish shooting percentage to 30.8 for the night.

UNF is now 0-20 all-time to an SEC opponent. The men’s basketball team will stay on the road to face Ball State on Dec.19 at 7 p.m.

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