Written by Sam Foth.
For their second game of the regular season, Johnny Dawkins and the UCF Knights took on Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt Commodores. Both the Knights and Commodores came into this matchup 1-0 with a UCF 82-78 win over Hofstra and a Vanderbilt 105-61 win over Lipscomb.
This was the first meeting that UCF and Vanderbilt have had in college basketball. This was also the first of two games that UCF will play against SEC teams, with the second being against Texas A&M on November 14th.
After UCF won the tip-off, both teams came out strong to start the game. UCF hit 4 of their first 5 shots but still found themselves down 11-12 in the first five minutes of the game. The next 10 minutes was all Vanderbilt. The Commodores scored 28 points in the next 10 minutes, making 50% of their shots. UCF, on the other hand, only scored 18, shooting 7-20 in that timeframe. With 3 minutes to go in the first half, the score was 29-40, in favor of the Commodores. UCF still couldn’t find that spark in the final 3 minutes of the half as the score remained in favor of the Commodores with a dominating 52-36 lead going into halftime.
Through the first 20 minutes, Riley Kugel was the star, racking up the team-leading 12 points, and shooting 4-4 on 3-pointers. For Vanderbilt, Tyler Nickel was leading the charge with 11 points on 4-5 shooting. The difference maker was that UCF shot 43% from the field while Vanderbilt was shooting 61%. UCF also had 6 turnovers to Vanderbilt’s 2.
Coming out of halftime, it was clear that Vanderbilt didn’t take their foot of the gas as they went on an 8-0 run in under two minutes. The Knights would continue to struggle as they would find themselves down 27 points with 13 minutes to go in the second. However, some life came back to the Knights as with 10 minutes to go, they found themselves down 18 with the score being 56-74. That spark would turn into momentum as with about five minutes to go, UCF brought the score within 9 with a score of 75-84. That momentum wouldn’t close out the game, though, as with some big scores from Duke Miles and Tyler Nickel, Vanderbilt would continue to stay on top, resulting in a final score of 93-105 in favor of Vanderbilt.
Riley Kugel was the leading scorer for UCF, scoring 25 on 9-19 from the field. For Vanderbilt, Duke Miles was their top scorer with 20 on 8-13 from the field. The big difference maker throughout the whole game was the UCF turnovers as they had 12, resulting in 20 Vanderbilt points. Vanderbilt only had 6 turnovers and UCF wasn’t able to capitalize on them, only scoring 2 points off of them. UCF shot 53% from the field and 67% from three, compared to Vanderbilt’s 56% from the field and 39% from three.
The UCF Knights lose to the Vanderbilt Commodores with a final score of 93-105. The Knights fall to 1-1 on the season and look to play Florida A&M on November 11th at 7 P.M. which will be streaming on ESPN+.
