Freshmen Tacko Fall and Chance McSpadden combined for 44 points in a 94-85 victory for the University of Central Florida Knights over the Stetson Hatters on Wednesday.
McSpadden received his first start as a Knight and seized the opportunity in a big way, scoring 21 points and tacking on four assists and four rebounds. However, Wednesday night belonged to Tacko Fall who utilized his height advantage to drop 23 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks on a shell-shocked Stetson team.
Stetson was more than prepared for the Knights in the first half, forcing five turnovers and holding UCF to just 23.1 percent from beyond the arc. The turnover bug almost became a problem once again for UCF, but they honed in on ball control in the second half and with that came success. AJ Davis played the role of point forward for the Knights once again with sophomore BJ Taylor still out with an injury.
Davis became the player that the team would rely on regularly on both sides of the ball in the waning moments of the game. The sophomore led the team in points, rebounds, assists and blocks in the second half despite being in foul trouble for the final five minutes.
Sophomore guard Grant Lozoya did most of the damage for the Hatters with 20 points and managed to shoot a blistering 50 percent from long range. Unfortunately for Stetson, the team’s size played a major role in the loss as they struggled to come away with rebounds and gave up a lot of second-chance buckets. The Hatters tallest player was 6-foot-7 which is nearly a foot smaller than Tacko Fall and a hard attribute to overcome against the Knights who have the seventh-tallest team in the NCAA.
The victory against Stetson means that the Knights split their two-game road stretch and come back to CFE Arena with a 2-3 record. UCF will take on the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames this Saturday as they seek to come away with another win before a staggering contest on Dec. 8 against UMass.
