ORLANDO, Fla. – The Knights could not recover from their shooting woes in the first half as they lost to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane 75-67 on Sunday afternoon.
“Our defense was solid in the first half, but we just weren’t hitting shots and they were,” redshirt sophomore AJ Davis said. “We can’t keep on trying to battle back in the second half and just hope that the shots go down.”
In the first half, UCF struggled to really get anything going and it seemed like the team was lost offensively. The Knights shot 25.8 percent from the field, including an abysmal 1-for-12 from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Tulsa had no trouble finding their shot as junior guard Pat Birt went for a game-high 26 points. Birt was shooting 38.6 percent from long range going into the game on Sunday and is one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in the American Athletic Conference.
The Knights have lacked an offensive identity for the majority of the month of February, but it seemed as though something may have finally clicked as a completely different team appeared for the second half.
“We created some break situations with some defensive energy which was key for us tonight,” UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones said. “We had 13 offensive rebounds tonight, I thought that was great and obviously made free throws tonight. We did a lot of positive things here that we haven’t been doing.”
Adonys Henriquez knocked down three consecutive threes and helped pull a 14-point halftime deficit down to just 5 points. The sophomore guard’s return to the court was most certainly a welcome one following his sprained MCL back on Jan. 31 against UConn. Behind Henriquez, the team shot a collective 50 percent from the field in the second half and even brought it within just 2 points.
“I think sitting out, you get a different perspective of the game,” Henriquez said. “And coming back was a little tough trying to get back in shape and stuff, so now I feel like I’m starting to get right.”
However, it was not enough for the Knights to muster up a comeback victory and the team has now dropped eight of their last nine games. UCF’s next contest will be on Feb. 24 at CFE Arena where they will take on the Houston Cougars for the second time in as many weeks. Houston has had quite the stretch run in the month of February, but have routinely found themselves in close games when they are on the road which leaves some opportunities for the Knights.
