The UCF men’s basketball team kept their NCAA tournament hopes alive with a 64-54 win over UAB on Thursday night in the quarterfinals of the C-USA conference tournament.
It was UCF’s third time beating UAB this season and second win over the Blazers within the past five days.
The balanced effort from UCF (22-9, 10-6 C-USA) proved to be too much for a struggling UAB team that has had a rough season.
The Knights had four players post double digits in scoring and five players grab four or more rebounds. Junior forward Keith Clanton recorded team-highs with 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks.
Ball movement and patience allowed the Knights to get open shots throughout the night. Instead of settling for long-range jumpers, the Knights were able to create good shots. On this night, the Knights shot 23-for-46 (50%) from the field while their defense held UAB (15-16, 9-7 C-USA) to just 17-for-58 (29.3%) on the night.
The only time UCF trailed in this game was when UAB made the first shot of the game to make the score 2-0. It didn’t take long for the Knights to build a good lead. With one minute remaining in the first half, Marcus Jordan caused a UAB turnover which led to a lay-up for Clanton that put UCF up by 10, and the Knights went into half leading comfortably 36-29.
In the second half, UCF was able to maintain a solid lead for most of the half until UAB made a run to get within six points with three minutes remaining in the game, but the Knights kept their composure. The Knights made 13 of their 15 free-throw attempts in the last three minutes to close the game out and move on to the next round.
Junior forward Ovie Soko led UAB, scoring a game-high 18 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. The Blazers finished the season 15-16 overall and 9-7 in C-USA play.
UCF will return to action on Friday night to play the second-seed Memphis Tigers. The tournament is being played in Memphis, so the Tigers will be highly favored in this game. This game will serve as the rubber match between these two teams. The teams split the season series 1-1 with each team winning on their home court. UCF will need to win this game to have a shot at making the Big Dance.
The game is scheduled to be televised on CBS Sports Network at 6:30 p.m.
