Nov. 21--Chris Collins is learning more and more about his opportunistic team in this young season.
Tre Demps remains his money player at the end of games and freshman point guard Bryant McIntosh looks to be the same type of clutch player.
Demps hit the game-winning jumper with two seconds left as Northwestern rallied in a back-and-forth game to edge North Florida 69-67 Thursday night at Welsh-Ryan Arena. McIntosh led the Wildcats in scoring with 16 points and he had four assists.
"I am really proud of Tre because he hasn't played his best," Collins said. "Tre wants it so badly he has a tendency to put a lot of pressure on himself. I thought he hung in there in this game and in the last two minutes of this game he made some big buckets."
Demps wound up with 15 points on 7 of 15 shooting.
"My dad, I have to give a lot of credit to him. We worked on that for years," Demps said of the late-game scenarios. "After every workout we had, he would always give me the ball and say: 'Ten seconds on the clock ...' and we would work on it."
Sanjay Lumpkin had 13 points for the Wildcats, who shot 44.6 percent from the field. North Florida (1-2) got 18 points from Dallas Moore and 17 from Chris Davenport.
Collins says he would not mind seeing his players getting a little ticked off at him this season while vying for playing time.
"I've told our guys that I would like to be in a position where there are a lot of guys who are playing well. And I am OK with those guys being a little mad at the coach sometimes and wanting to get in there," Collins said of his depth.
"That's a good thing, as long as it is channeled the right way. It helps to have more guys who can go in and play. I am still very much learning how to sub and how to make rotations and who to put out there together. And it has been nice, while we are still learning about our team, to still win a couple of games."
fmitchell@tribpub.com
Twitter @kicker34
North Florida visits Wildcats at Welsh-Ryan
