ORLANDO, Fla. – The Knights fell again in conference play in a 56-46 loss to the Cincinnati Bearcats, moving the team to just 2-6 in the American and under .500 for the first time all season.
It’s hard to win games when the shots just aren’t falling.
UCF shot just 17-52 – 32.7% – in Sunday’s loss to the Bearcats, effectively beating themselves with a lack of proper execution. They never appeared to be outmatched, and kept pace with a Cincinnati program that has found success early on in conference play – but were unable to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.
“We had some looks that didn’t go down, we had three or four open shots there to turn the corner down the stretch, that’s all you can ask for, but they needed to go down for us,” said Head Coach Donnie Jones.
Kasey Wilson led the team with 12 points and 11 rebounds. Wilson took command of the offense after B.J. Taylor was sidelined for the game with concussion-like symptoms in the first half after ending up on the receiving end of a Justin McBride elbow.
Taylor’s loss was a tough blow to a Knights’ offense still searching for a cemented identity; he was averaging 14.8 points per game before tipoff.
“I think that impacted things,” said Daiquan Walker. “That’s just another scoring threat, another option, another person the defense has to worry about, another person we can go to to make plays.”
Walker and Brandon Goodwin stepped up in Taylor’s absence, recording 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Knights did come close in the final moments of the game. Though UCF failed to retake a lead in the second half, the game seemed to climax at the one-minute mark as the Knights pulled within 4 and had momentum at their back. Despite the promising circumstances, foul trouble quickly put the game out of reach, giving Cincinnati four unanswered points to bolster their lead.
“Down the stretch we just didn’t execute,” said Walker.
There was no dominating performance from any single Bearcat, relying instead on a total team effort. Kevin Johnson was the only player to hit double digits with 13 points, and the team actually got off less shots than UCF did. Cincinnati just made them count.
“Cincinnati is a good basketball team, there’s a reason they’re top 5 defensively in the country. With the way they play it’s a hard thing to create atmosphere-wise in practice,” said Jones.
With 12 turnovers, a poor shooting percentage, and plenty of wasted momentum, UCF kept themselves from winning a game well within reach. Call it a moral victory at best, UCF has now been competitive against SMU, Tulsa and Cincinnati – the top three teams in the conference.
“Obviously a hard fought game tonight by our team. I was happy with how we competed. I thought the one thing I’ve been very happy with this team, especially these last two games, has been we’ve put ourselves in a position down the stretch here to have a chance against two very good programs,” Jones said.
Now sitting at 9-10 overall the Knights will have some serious fundamental regrouping to do before Wednesday’s game against Temple – who is 4-3 in the division and 13-7 overall. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the CFE Arena.
