JACKSONVILLE, FL-It was a showdown for a share of first place in Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball, but there was none of the expected back-and-forth suspense once the game started, as defending A-Sun champ North Florida scored an impressive 107-71 victory over visiting NJIT Thursday night in the UNF Arena.

North Florida, which had lost its previous four games, halted the skid resoundingly, pouring in the 107 points on 68 percent shooting for the game (39-for-57), including 17-for-29 on 3-point tries by the nation's leading 3-point shooting team.

The Ospreys are now 8-4 in the A-Sun and 19-10 overall. With the victory, North Florida, which is 24-3 at home between last season and this one, is tied for first place with its crosstown rival, Jacksonville, which won its 13th home win in a row Thursday, defeating USC Upstate 81-76 to keep pace.

NJIT, which had taken advantage of UNF's February missteps to pull into a three-way tie for the top spot, saw its season-best five-game winning streak come to a close with Thursday's defeat at North Florida.

As a result, the Highlanders, who played one of their best defensive games of the season the last time out when they beat Florida Gulf Coast, 68-59, drop a game off the pace with only two regular season games remaining. Their record in the A-Sun falls to 7-5 and their overall mark is 16-12.

In NJIT's first game of the year against North Florida, played in Newark on January 24, the Ospreys scored a 94-80 victory, with the 94 points representing the most allowed in a game this season by the Highlanders, who count national powers Kentucky (#2 when it scored 87 points vs. NJIT) and Providence (which became a Top 10 team after scoring 83 points vs. NJIT) on this season's non-conference schedule. The previous results were blown away Thursday when UNF poured in 107 points.

Demarcus Daniels, a 6-foot-8 senior who comes off the bench in what is typically a seven-man rotation, led North Florida with 25 points, shooting 10-for-13 from the field, including 4 of 6 on 3-pointers, in 22 minutes played. He added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocked shots, and 3 steals.

Junior point guard Dallas Moore of the Ospreys continued to make a strong case for Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, scoring 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting (including 2-for-3 from downtown), with an impeccable floor game that saw him hand out 11 assists without committing a turnover in 31 minutes. Moore had 29 points and 8 assists when UNF beat the Highlanders in Newark.

Chris Davenport, a 6-foot-8 junior, added 17 points and he made 5 of 6 shots from the field, including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers. His 6 rebounds topped UNF.

Redshirt junior Aaron Bodager chipped in 11 points on 4-for-5 shooting as a reserve for the Ospreys.

NJIT, which had a good offensive second half, scoring 46 points over the last 20 minutes, got a team-leading 16 points from explosive sophomore guard Chris Jenkins, followed by 13 points from senior Ky Howard and 12 from junior Damon Lynn.

Tim Coleman and Vlad Shustov each scored 8 for the Highlanders, while Emmanuel Tselentakis pulled down a game-high 7 rebounds for NJIT.

Of course, it's virtually impossible to keep pace in a college game when the opponent scores as easily as North Florida did against the Highlanders on Thursday night.

But any hope of staying close was undermined in the first half on the offensive end of the court when NJIT shot barely over 30 percent (8-for-26) and scored 25 points while the Ospreys were more than doubling that total with 53 points.

The Highlanders executed better in the second half, when they shot 47 percent (18-for-38) and scored 46 points after the break. But they couldn't cut into the 28-point halftime deficit because UNF stayed hot, and arguably got hotter, making two-thirds of its shots, including 6-for-15 from beyond the 3-point arc and adding 54 points to the final score.

Thursday's results, while they did not entirely extinguish NJIT's hope for the regular season championship, reduced them significantly.

With two regular season games left, NJIT is a game behind co-leaders North Florida and Jacksonville in the A-Sun standings.

The Highlanders will have 48 hours to regroup from the lopsided loss at UNF and they will head across town to take on Jacksonville in a 7 pm game on Saturday.

At the same time, North Florida will host USC Upstate. When the teams met in South Carolina on January 21, the Ospreys won easily, 78-62.

Finally, on February 25, North Florida and Jacksonville will clash, while NJIT visits USC Upstate.

So, while the regular season schedule is nearing its end, there is still a lot of unsettled business.

It's certain with UNF and Jacksonville going head-to-head on the 25th, that one of them will lose at least one more game before season's end. But the Highlanders can only remain a factor to the end by winning at Jacksonville, where the Dolphins are 12-0 in their Swisher Gymnasium.

NJIT won the first meeting wire-to-wire, 83-63, in Newark on January 21.