NCAA College Basketball Box Scores

National Basketball Association

BOXSCORE | RECAP

Miami-Florida 86, North Florida 65

When: 4:00 PM ET, Saturday, November 25, 2017
Where: Watsco Center, Coral Gables, Florida
Officials: # Jamie Luckie, # Raymond Styons, # Doug Sirmons
Attendance: 7189

By The Sports Xchange

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Guard Bruce Brown twice has tied for the team lead in scoring and recorded the program's third triple-double (and his second) for Miami in the first two weeks of the season, but Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga is expecting even more from the precocious sophomore.

"Bruce is playing like Clark Kent," Larranaga said after Brown tied teammate guard Anthony Lawrence for team scoring honors with 14 points in the 11th-ranked Hurricanes' 86-65 victory over North Florida on Saturday. "Conservative, got the glasses on, got a suit on, and tie. At some point, hopefully soon, he'll remove the glasses and become Superman."

Brown's next chance to become "Superman" is at No. 14 Minnesota on Wednesday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference-Big Ten Challenge.

Brown has had a couple of off-shooting nights, including a 2-of-8 performance in the previous game when he scored only seven points against La Salle. But he hit half of his 14 attempts against the Ospreys and scored 12 of his points in the first half.

Brown said he had been told to be more aggressive and play his game.

"I was thinking too much my last game," he said. "I had to slow myself down and take shots I knew I could make and I knew I'd be good. I had quick easy dunk so that's always good."

That dunk was the first basket of the game for the Hurricanes (5-0) after the Ospreys (1-7) opened the afternoon on guard Ivan Gandia-Rosa's corner 3-pointer.

"It gets me feeling good to see the ball go in the basket," Brown said.

After some early sparring, Miami went on a 16-2 run to move out to a 26-9 cushion, saw the visitors trim that down to 30-23 with a 14-4 spurt that featured a trio of 3-pointers, and closed out the period by on an 8-2 surge to go to the locker room up 38-25.

Miami's lead was in double digits throughout the second half, and the Hurricanes owned a 22-point lead on two occasions, the first at 57-35 with just under 12 minutes left and the last at 61-39 about four minutes later.

North Florida was coming off a 20-of-34, 3-point shooting performance in its last outing but was only 8 of 26 from behind the arc against Miami.

The Ospreys shot only 39.0 percent from the field to Miami's 50 percent and made 20 turnovers to Miami's 14. The Hurricanes had five players in double figures, North Florida one with guard JT Escobar leading all scorers with 16 points.

"The thing I'd say about Miami is they really, really understand who they are and they really do a good job of finding each other," said coach Matthew Driscoll, whose Ospreys lost at No. 2 Michigan and at No. 8 Florida in their first four games. "And they don't have guys who are what I call pigs.

"They have guys who share the sugar. They're not afraid to give it up."

NOTES: This is the third time in seven seasons under coach Jim Larranaga that Miami has won its first five games. The 2015-15 Hurricanes started 8-0 and the 2015-16 team won its first five before losing to Northeastern. ...With the Ospreys shooting only 39.0 percent, the Hurricanes have held four of their first five opponents under 40 percent from the field. Florida A&M shot 40.7 percent in Miami's 90-59 win. ... North Florida has hit at least one 3-pointer in all 387 games it has played as a NCAA Division I program.

Top Game Performances

North Florida		Miami-Florida
J.T. Escobar 16	Scoring	Bruce Brown 14
Ivan Gandia-Rosa 3	Assists	Bruce Brown 4
Garrett Sams 5	Rebounds	Bruce Brown 7
Garrett Sams 4	Free Throws Made	Anthony Lawrence Jr. 6
Garrett Sams 4	Steals	Bruce Brown 3
Noah Horchler 1	Blocks	Sam Waardenburg 1

Team Stats Summary

Team	Points	FG%	3PM-3PA	FTM-FTA	Assists	Rebounds	Blocks	Steals	Turnovers
North Florida	65	39.0	8-26	11-12	10	25	1	8	20
Miami-Florida	86	50.0	3-15	17-23	16	34	1	9	14