ORLANDO, Fla. – Following a big win at Tulane on Thursday, the UCF Knights suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Temple Owls 62-60 on Saturday afternoon.
“There’s a confidence that we will build off of this,” UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones said. “It hurts, I know those guys are hurting in the locker room, you could hear a pin drop. We’ll regroup, we have to and the good thing is that we have a chance to play on Tuesday.”
The nail-biting game was decided in the final seconds as an AJ Davis tip-in that would have sent the game into overtime was waved off by the referees. UCF fought back from a 4-point deficit at halftime and actually held the lead for six of the final 11 minutes of the game. However, the difference maker in the Knight’s loss was most likely their troubles at the charity stripe. The team collectively shot an abysmal 50 percent on 14 shots from the free throw line while the Temple Owls connected on 7 of 10.
“When it comes down to the last shot and you are playing so hard and then you just fall short. I mean it always hurts and leaves a bitter taste in your mouth,” UCF senior guard Daiquan Walker said.
Temple entered the contest against UCF in third in the conference and were coming off of a tough overtime victory against Tulsa. Owls’ forward Obi Enechionyia caused a lot of matchup issues for the Knights with his size and ability to shoot from beyond the arc. Enechionyia amassed 14 points and came up with a major block on an AJ Davis shot that would have tied the game in the final minute.
From the outset, it seemed as though this contest would have been decided by who hit the most from beyond the arc. Both UCF and Temple are certainly known for their penchant for shooting from long range, but as the game wore on, it became clear that neither team had the hot hand from outside. There were a whopping total of 49 attempts from the 3-point line in the game and only 14 of those shots landed in the bottom of the net (7 for each team).
Daiquan Walker’s 33-point performance against Tulane carried over into Saturday’s tilt against the Owls as the guard stuffed the stat sheet with 6 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Walker’s role has increased drastically with the injuries to BJ Taylor and Adonys Henriquez leaving the team with very little experience at the guard position.
“I thought Walker was very good, he got to the rim well,” Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy said. “He had 8 assists, that’s pretty good basketball playing. He’s a Philly kid and you know he’s going to try to do well against us.”
Another highlight for the Knights was freshman center Tacko Fall, who came off the bench for the second consecutive game and was dominant in the paint. The freshman center was perfect from the field as he scored 10 points while pulling down 7 rebounds and blocking 3 shots.
“I told [Tacko] before the game, I give you permission to play mad. So go out there and would you please play mad,” Jones said. “You can be your humble self off the floor, but understand that people are preparing and coming at you and trying to do anything to make a highlight reel when they play against you.”
With the loss, the Knights fall to 5-5 in the conference and the road to the AAC Championship will not get any easier with the Cincinnati Bearcats coming to Orlando this Tuesday. The Bearcats will be coming off a close loss to the Memphis Tigers, but they have won 6 of their last 8 and have registered wins against both UConn and Houston.
