Coming off a devastating loss to Rice last Wednesday, the UCF men’s basketball team (20-8 , 9-5 C-USA) was able to bounce back with a big win over the red-hot UTEP Miners, led by Isaiah Sykes 23-point, 11-rebound double-double effort.
The Knights pulled away in the second half, outscoring their opponent 38-22 to end the Miners (14-14, 7-7 C-USA) four-game winning streak and come away with a 63-45 victory at the UCF Arena Saturday night.
The Miners are playing basketball as good as anyone in Conference-USA right now. They came to Orlando, riding a four-game hot streak after beating Memphis, Tulsa and Southern Miss., three of the top four teams in C-USA, in their last three games.
The win gives the Knights their second consecutive 20-win season, a milestone for any program. In addition, the 15-1 home record ties the best mark in program history for home wins in a season.
After loosing to Rice last Wednesday, a game the Knights had in the bag, the Knights could not afford to drop a second in a row. With a possible at-large tournament bid at stake, and a trip to Memphis next on the schedule, a win tonight was imperative.
“It was real focused, we competed extra hard, like we were going against opponents, practice was more like game time, and I think that helped us,” Sykes said about the days after the loss to Rice. “We were real determined, we slipped up against Rice, and we did not want it to happen against UTEP. We’re still playing for something and our goal is still ahead of us.”
Not much more can be said about Sykes that has not already been said. The sophomore had a double double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. He shot nine-of-17 from the floor and added a three-point bucket at the end of the contest. His importance to the team cannot be overstated.
Knights fans saw an interesting line up take the floor to start the game against the Miners. Instead of A.J. Rompza and Josh Crittle starting with the usual suspects, Kasey Wilson made his first career start along with Tristan Spurlock.
The first half was a defensive showcase as neither team scored more than 25 points, and freshman Kasey Wilson registered three blocks. UTEP held UCF to under 30 percent shooting, and Marcus Jordan’s cold streak continued as he shot one-for-six in the first half. A bright spot from the first half was that UCF forced six turnovers and shot six-of-eight from the charity stripe.
Crittle and Rompza started the second half in place of Spurlock and Wilson. The chemistry led to a much more productive half, as they shot 46 percent from the field.
While leading 31-29 with 15 minutes left to play, the scoring started to open up and the shots started to fall for the Knights. UCF went on a 13-3 run before UTEP started to get some points of their own.
The teams started to trade points in the paint, with Sykes at the center of it all. Sykes specialty has been grabbing offensive rebounds, getting five tonight, and cleaning up the possession.
Jordan warmed up, driving the lane for an acrobatic layup and followed it up with a three bomb moments later to give the Knights a 52-42 lead.
Down the stretch, it was all Clanton, Sykes and Jordan as the Knights used a 14-3 run to close out the game.
Clanton finished with 12 points and seven boards, and Jordan added 11 points.
The Knights will take the floor next Tuesday against the Tigers at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
