The University of North Florida outscored the University of Maine 11-2 over the final 5:07 to earn a 67-58 men’s basketball win over the Black Bears in the Ospreys’ MTE Tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, Saturday night.
Each team went 2-1 in the tournament.
UNF improved to 4-2 while UMaine fell to 3-3.
Junior guard Ametri Moss broke a 56-56 tie when he hit a jump shot that put the Ospreys ahead to stay with 5:07 remaining.
Following a UMaine miss, junior guard Nate Lliteras nailed a 3-pointer for UNF off a Moss pass to extend the lead to 61-56.
It was Lliteras’ only basket of the game as he had missed his previous three shots.
Junior guard Quion Burns of UMaine cut the lead to three with a jumper off a Jaden Clayton feed with 3:25 remaining, but those were the last points the Black Bears were to score.
UMF’s Dorian James dunked off a pass from Jake van der Heijden with 1:44 remaining to restore the five-point lead.
Junior guard Chaz Lanier and freshman guard Jasai Miles sewed up the win with a pair of free throws apiece in the final 46 seconds.
During the closing 11-2 run, the Black Bears shot 1-for-10 from the floor including four missed threes.
UMaine went a dismal 2-for-16 beyond the 3-point arc.
UMaine had trailed 49-38 with 15:09 remaining but reeled off a 16-5 run to tie it up at 54-54.
A Moss dunk was answered by a Clayton layup off a Kellen Tynes pass before North Florida pulled away.
The Black Bears suffered an important loss with just over eight minutes remaining when junior forward A.J. Lopez, who had scored 36 points in the two previous tournament wins, sustained a shoulder injury and didn’t return.
He had eight points when he came out.
Lanier had a game-high 21 points to pace the Ospreys. He also had four rebounds. He shot 7-for-12 from the floor including a 5-for-9 showing from long distance. Moss contributed 14 points, five rebounds and four assists and James produced 13 points, six rebounds and two assists.
Junior guard Kellen Tynes led the Black Bears with 20 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals. Graduate student forward Adam Cisse contributed 10 points and six rebounds.
Lopez had his eight points before getting hurt, and Burns had seven points and three rebounds.
North Florida shot 46.3 percent from the floor and 36 percent beyond the 3-point arc.
The Ospreys won the rebounding battle 36-24.
University of Maine head coach Chris Markwood was disappointed with his team’s performance.
“North Florida played harder and with more energy,” said Markwood to Black Bear Sports Properties/Van Wagner play-by-play man Ron Lisnet after the game. “We didn’t come with the right effort.
“We weren’t locked in mentally enough to win a road game. We didn’t execute on both sides of the ball,” he added. “We didn’t bring it. We got back to 56-56 but we weren’t able to stack up stops.”
UMaine will travel to Tampa to take on the University of South Florida on Wednesday at 7 p.m. while North Florida will be in action again on Friday when it travels to Baton Rouge to battle Louisiana State University at 8 p.m.
