In a nearly packed CFE Arena, the Knights (1-1) plagued by turnovers and poor free throw shooting fell to the Florida State Seminoles (2-0) 80-68 Wednesday night.
UCF forward Kasey Wilson paced the Knights’ offense with four three-pointers to keep the Knights competitive, but costly mistakes led to the Knights’s demise. The Knights had 20 turnovers on 10 assists and shot 52.4 percent from the free-throw line. Wilson reiterated that the Knights need to improve their fundamentals if they want to be competitive in the American Athletic Conference this season.
“We get the repetition in practice. We get the focus in practice. We need to carry that over into the games,” Wilson said.
Isaiah Sykes came off the bench after sitting for eight minutes in the first half due to a couple of early personal fouls and led the Knights on a 8-0 run that gave the Knights a 26-25 lead with 4:50 remaining in the first half.
However, the Seminoles pushed back and after trading baskets with the Knights, FSU’s Ian Miller scored seven points in the final two minutes of the first half to give the ‘Noles a 38-33 lead going into halftime.
It was a tale of two halves for the Knights, who couldn’t recover from a 17-4 FSU run in the second half that ultimately led to the Seminoles victory. FSU pushed the lead to 62-45 with 10:00 remaining in the second half and the Knights couldn’t get within nine points for the rest of the game.
The good news for the Knights is that the season is still young, and a tough test early is something to build off of.
This was the 10th meeting between the two teams, with this being the first game played on UCF campus. The Knights return to the court on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Bethune-Cookman University.
