Showing the ability to bounce back after tough losses has been a staple for the UCF Men’s basketball team this season.
After every defeat this year, the Knights (19-7, 8-4 C-USA) have come back to win a minimum of two consecutive games, including a five-game winning streak after a loss to Louisiana Lafayette back on Dec. 21.
“It’s been great. I feel like in years before, people would go their different ways. I feel now, if we lose, we’ll go in the hotel as a team, and we’ll talk about stuff. We’ll figure what we did wrong,” A.J. Rompza said. “We kind of come together and do it in a way that people can’t get mad and doesn’t offend others…people are maturing and people are getting older.”
“I think the mindset we have now, knowing that in every game we have a chance if we play together and play hard.”
Following a devastating loss to Southern Miss last Saturday and a week layoff, the Knights showcased their resiliency and maturity once again with a big 64-55 win over East Carolina (12-13, 3-9 C-USA) Saturday night at the UCF Arena.
UCF swept ECU this season, routing the Pirates 81-63 on the road last month, after the Knights went 0-3 against their rivals last season. The Knights are now 13-5 all-time against ECU.
While the Knights held a lead for the majority of the game, UCF wasn’t able to completely put away the pesky Pirates until about 33 seconds left in the contest after two Marcus Jordan free throws gave UCF a 63-55 lead.
ECU shooting guard Corvonn Gaines made it interesting with 40 seconds remaining in the game when he hit a three-pointer from the corner to get the Pirates within six points.
That came just a couple possessions after Isaiah Sykes came up with a monster swat on Gaines, who appeared to be angered by the embarrassing block and his subsequent bickering nearly caused a fight between the opponents. But, the fight was quickly broken up by the referees.
UCF allowed its play to do the talking, as they would shoot free throws the rest of the way out, finally putting the Pirates at bay.
Clanton led all scorers with 16 points on seven-of-12 shooting from the field, to go along with seven rebounds. The Knights got two other players in double figures, as Rompza posted 11 points and Marcus Jordan added 10 points.
“As a leader sometimes, you got to pull it out and get it down low to Keith. I think we need to play inside-out all the time. I think we feed off Keith. All these big games, he’s started us off… We got to get him the ball as much as possible and as often as possible,” Rompza said.
Rompza, who started his 90th career game for the Knights, had another all-around performance against the Pirates. Along with his 11 points, the senior point guard contributed five rebounds, five assists and two steals after posting 16 points, nine assists, seven boards and five steals in UCF’s first matchup against the Pirates this year.
This time around, it wasn’t as easy to snag a victory as the Pirates hung around all game long, looking to avenge their 18-point home loss to the Knights on Jan. 7.
UCF was able to hold on for the win with stellar defense. The Knights limited the Pirates to just 38 percent shooting from the field in the game, and just 16.7 percent (four-of-24) from the three-point line. The Knights were able to display some strong shooting of their own as they went 23-of-46 (50%) from the floor.
But the difference was the free throw shooting as UCF held the Pirates to just 10 attempts from the charity stripe, while the Knights converted 13-of-22 free throws.
“I’m happy with the win. It was a good team effort tonight. I’m pleased with the way we were sharing the ball…It was good to get Keith Clanton back in the swing here,” UCF head coach Donnie Jones said. “It was a grind out game. I knew we were gonna have to make free throws down the stretch to be able to win these type of games. I was really happy with our effort, we held them to 16 percent from the three-point line- that was the difference.”
Midway through the second half, the Knights had a nice spurt when Jordan, Rompza and Tristan Spurlock hit three consecutive shots from beyond the arc within three minutes to get the Knights some breathing room after an aggressive ECU push.
Darrius Morrow led the Pirates with 15 points and five boards, while Robert Sampson and Miguel Paul chipped in 10 points each.
With the win, UCF has matched its regular season victory total from last season at 19, and already have increased their conference-win total by two from last year.
“This is where the grind- it really separates teams. I think we’re tied for third. I wrote ‘us’ before the game started. It really is about us- we control where us goes. We have four games left, we have to take them one at a time,” Jones said. “Tonight was the most important game because that’s what we had, and we won that. Now, we gotta focus on Rice.”
“If you want to make a move, you let everyone else worry about themselves, and you worry about what you can control, and that has been us. I think we’re in a situation to make some moves. We got to start passing some people to the top, and we have a chance to do that during these next four games.”
The Knights will return to action Wednesday against Rice with game time set for 9 p.m.
