The UCF men’s basketball team came into Wednesday’s College Basketball Invitational final four game against Creighton 15-0 against teams outside of Conference USA this season.
Come nightfall, that streak ended, and so did the Knights hopes for a CBI championship.
UCF looked out-of-sync all game, which could have been an effect of their travel date being pushed back to game day. The team landed in Omaha, Neb. around 2:30 p.m. local time, just hours before tip off. The Knights turned the ball over 19 times and shot just 2-of-16 from 3-point range. The team ended their season with a 21-12 record, just the sixth time in school history a team has won 20 or more games.
“Give credit to Creighton. They are a very good basketball team,” head coach Donnie Jones said in a release. “They were aggressive and played with an edge. Our kids kept competing. This tournament is about the future as much as it is about the now. There were a lot of positives from playing in this tournament.”
UCF was led by Keith Clanton, who pitched in a game-high 26 points. Marcus Jordan scored nine points on 4-of-9 shooting, while Isaiah Sykes and A.J. Rompza added 12 points off the bench a piece.
Creighton (22-14) jumped out of the game on a 15-5 run and never looked back. They who improved to 18-3 at home this season and shot 56.7 percent overall for the game. They held a 44-23 lead at the half and eventually built a 30-point lead with seven minutes left in the game.
Despite the loss, the season was still a successful one for the Knights. In Jones first season, UCF started the year 14-0 and nabbed the school’s first top-25 ranking in program history. They also enjoyed wins over Miami, Florida and USF — all teams from major basketball conferences.
