ORLANDO, Fla. – An ice-cold shooting performance paired with the UConn Huskies’ stingy defense doomed the UCF Knights to a 67-41 loss on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s not one of those ones where you can feel sorry for yourself or get your confidence down,” UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones said. “I think it’s a confidence factor right now and those guys, as well as all of us, it’s got to be a ‘we’ thing is how we look and move forward.”
It was clear that this game was bound to be a physical one early on in the first half as each team had only one basket through the first five minutes. However, it would be the UConn Huskies that found their shot first while the Knights struggled to even hit from the charity stripe. UCF finished the game shooting an abysmal 23.5 percent while also making just 12 of 23 from the free throw line.
“At times I think that we try to force a lot of things instead of being patient, so I think that we just have to go back to the drawing board and just fix our mistakes,” senior guard Daiquan Walker said.
The Huskies did not shoot any better than the Knights in the second half, but their defense afforded them that luxury as they registered 12 steals. UConn’s zone defense forced the Knights to turn the ball over 15 times as the early season ball control woes have reared their ugly head once again.
UCF has now turned the ball over at least 15 times in each of their last three losses and have only 2 games this season in which they have not turned the ball over more than 11 times. Their third straight loss has seen the Knights lose some of the early season confidence they had developed, which leaves some questions regarding the young team’s motivation against tough competition like UConn.
“Every night you are going to play somebody that is potentially top-25 competition,” junior center Justin McBride said. “They put on their shorts the same way we put on our shorts, they put on their jerseys the same way we put on our jerseys. So no I don’t think that that crept into our heads, I just think we have to get on the same page.”
UConn’s junior center Amida Brimah returned to the court for the first time in nearly six weeks and his presence stifled UCF’s frontcourt in a major way. Brimah posted 6 points, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks and Huskies’ Head Coach Kevin Ollie sung the returning big man’s praises after the game.
“We wanted to get him back two weeks ago, but we had to take our time,” Ollie said. “He’s just a joyful person to just be around. It’s not even about basketball with him, he’s just a complete human being.”
UCF will travel to Tulane this Thursday before coming home to take on the Temple Owls as their grueling AAC schedule continues. If the team fails to bounce back in either of those games, the Knights could find themselves at the bottom of the conference.
