The Northern Kentucky Norse picked up its first Atlantic Sun Conference victory on Wednesday after a 65-52 victory at North Florida.
The Norse (3-7, 1-1 A-Sun) have now won three of their last four thanks to Chad Jackson's biggest game of the season. Jackson finished one short of a career high in points, but his 21 were a season high as were his five steals. Eshaunte Jones also added a big day with 19 points and nine rebounds while Ethan Faulkner finished with 12 points.
Beau Beech led the way for the Ospreys (6-9, 1-1) with 17 points and eight rebounds and Travis Wallace added 12 points and five boards.
Jackson opened the game with the first five for the Norse before Tyler White tied the game at eight with a 3-pointer and then gave the Norse a 10-8 lead on a steal and layup. NKU then went on a 10-2 run to build an eight point lead that was capped by a Jackson layup.
North Florida closed the gap to five, but a layup by Jackson and back to back 3-pointers from Faulkner and Jones pushed the lead to 13. The Ospreys scored the final six points of the half to make it a 32-25 contest at halftime.
Trailing by eight with 15:45 left, the Ospreys went on a 17-7 run to take a 50-49 lead with 6:12 to go. The Norse took over from there as they finished the game on a 16-2 run with Jones and Faulkner accounting for all but two of the 16. North Florida turned the ball over four times and missed its final five shots (all 3-point attempts).
NKU will play at the Bank of Kentucky Center for the first time this season as it welcomes USC Upstate (6-7) for the first conference home game on Jan.5 at 7:00 p.m.
A full box score can be seen here.
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