North Florida Ospreys vs Florida State Seminoles Box Score on Jan 20, 2022

Caleb Mills and Matthew Cleveland each scored 21 points to help host Florida State beat North Florida 86-73 on Thursday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla.

The Seminoles (12-5) picked up their fifth consecutive win in a nonconference game that was rescheduled from Dec. 21.

FSU held off a resilient performance by the visiting Ospreys (4-15), who dropped their sixth consecutive game despite shooting 14 for 24 from 3-point range.

Jarius Hicklen led UNF's sharp-shooting performance with a game-high 27 points as he made 6 of 12 shots from beyond the arc. Emmanuel Adedoyin also made 4 of 5 shots from 3 and finished with 18 points and six assists.

UNF cut its deficit to 61-56 with 11:49 remaining in the second half before the Seminoles stretched the lead back to 18 points with a 13-0 run.

But the Ospreys wouldn't go away as they continued their 3-point barrage to once again pull within single digits at 77-68 with 4:22 left.

Florida State, however, managed to pull away down the stretch with a dominant performance inside as Cleveland, a freshman, set a career scoring high and matched a career-best 10 rebounds to record his second career double-double.

The Seminoles' dominance in the paint, where they outrebounded UNF 38-21, made up for their own lack of accuracy from long range (3 for 11).

FSU shot 55.9 percent overall as the Ospreys had no answer for center Tanor Ngom, who totaled 13 points and three rebounds. Ngom, who played only one minute during FSU's win Tuesday against Duke, missed over a month with a knee injury and played his first significant minutes on Thursday.

Malik Osborne (ankle) did not play after playing 31 minutes against Duke. Freshman John Butler got the start. Anthony Polite also had nine points for Florida State.

Mills, Cleveland and RayQuan Evans each had four assists as FSU totaled 20 assists overall and capitalized on 19 UNF turnovers.

--Field Level Media