UCF’s men’s basketball finished their second and last exhibition game of the year, handling Georgia College 82-65, in a game led by freshman BJ Taylor and Justin McBride.
Leading the state of Florida in high school in points per game, it’s no surprise BJ Taylor has led both exhibition matches in points, scoring 45 total for the Knights. Taylor closed out the first half with a three-pointer to hold the lead for the Knights.
Crowd-favorite Justin McBride filled the stat sheet with a double-double, pulling down 13 rebounds and notching 19 points. McBride’s 6’10″ size advantage also comes into play as he was able to grab nine of those rebounds offensively.
“Honestly, I just need to do whatever my team needs me to do, if its getting rebounds and scoring, whether it’s being a leader, a cheerleader, whatever the case may be I just want to contribute,” said McBride. “Last season taught me a lot, it taught me not to take the game for granted. In whatever fashion I can impact it that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Even as the men’s basketball team has led both Flagler and Georgia College by double digits, points against don’t seem to be a focus for the players nor are they for head coach Donnie Jones.
“I don’t really look at the score, I told those guys we were playing against our self, as a faceless opponent, it’s about how we play the game not necessarily them,” Jones said. “I think we have to be able to dictate tempo and what we do, it caught up in the score I just wanted to see us, offensively and defensively do the things we work on. To really play it the right way, where we guard it and to have what we call ‘perfect possession’, and that means everybody did everything right. It’s about doing everything right that you should do in a possession.”
The Knights will host their first regular season game on Sunday against Stetson at 6 p.m. at the CFE Arena. Students as always will receive free admission with a valid Student ID. Sunday’s match will also be the first of six straight home games to start the season.
Fans can watch the game broadcasted through ESPN3.
