All those hours spent practicing free-throws payed off for Isaiah Sykes Saturday night against Bethune-Cookman University.
The sophomore guard made two clutch free-throws with four seconds left to give the UCF (6-2) basketball team a 53-51 win at the UCF arena. Sykes drew a blocking foul on B-CU’s Anthony Breeze after Kevin Dukes made 1-of-2 from the line to tie the game at 51 apiece. Dukes had a chance to win the game for B-CU (3-6) at the buzzer when he raced down the court and pulled up for a three-pointer that was off a bit to the left.
UCF head coach Donnie Jones was looking for someone to step up in the absence of Marcus Jordan, who was suspended for Friday’s game due to violating team rules. Sykes was up to the challenge, making seven of his nine free-throw attempts and finishing with 15 points and four rebounds.
“Coach just said be more aggressive to everybody,” Sykes said. “Any one of us could have been in that situation, so I made the best of it. I came down, knocked down a shot and the two free throws, and we won the game.”
“I was proud of Isaiah Sykes to be in that moment,” Jones said. “He took 100 free-throws again before shoot-around, and I was really happy to see him seal the victory with some free-throws.”
Providing some much-needed energy off the bench for the Knights was senior forward P.J. Gaynor, who finished with nine points and three rebounds. Gaynor’s biggest contribution to the team was his two thunderous dunks that got the UCF crowd and the team fired up.
“We just try to feed off energy when we play,” Gaynor said. “I just try to do whatever I can to bring as much energy to the team as possible, so we can play good [defense] and play right.”
Jones was happy to have Gaynor back after he was suspended against Hartford.
“We needed his energy,” Jones said. “We needed the old P.J. back to be able to do the things that can help us, whether it be a block or a dunk. He’s an energy guy, and that’s why I like bringing him off the bench, and he did that tonight which really helped our team.”
With 5:30 remaining in the game, UCF was down by nine points. This was when Jones decided to put the full-court press back on, which led to a Gaynor dunk and got the Knights back in the game. The Knights closed the game with a 14-3 run and forced B-CU to take tough shots. It was another second-half comeback win for the Knights that left Jones encouraged.
“I think we’ve got great toughness,” Jones said. “I think we did a good job not getting caught up in the score and playing the next basket…I thought our guys really stayed focus and grinded it out. I think that’s what you gotta do to be able to win games, especially at a high level.”
After playing just two games over the past 14 days, the Knights will play two games at home over the next week starting with North Carolina A&T on Tuesday at 7 P.M. and Old Dominion next Saturday at 5 P.M.
