Written by Francisco Vera.
UCF wins their season opener at Addition Financial Arena, in a thriller against the Hofstra Pride with the score of 78-82.
The Knights got off to a slow start, scoring 5 points in the first 3 minutes with Hofstra keeping up after every bucket scored by UCF. At the first media timeout the score was 8-5 in favor of the Pride.
Hofstra continued to capitalize off the Knights’ mistakes and would slowly build a 9-point lead. It appeared that nothing was going in favor of UCF, but after a Riley Kugel three, momentum would begin to shift and the Knights would capitalize.
At the 7-minute mark, UCF would regain the lead and for the rest of the half would slowly continue to attempt to increase their lead with Hofstra biting back. The score at the half was a 36-32 lead in favor of the Knights.
Coming out of halftime, it continued to be a game of cat and mouse between both teams as they traded baskets back and forth. The score at the 12-minute media timeout was a 54-53 UCF lead.
After the timeout, the game took a more defensive approach with both teams missing shots and getting grittier in the paint. With 9:34 left on the clock, Hofstra’s Victory Onuetu fouled out.
With just under 6 minutes left in the game, it appeared like the Knights were finally able to slowly pull away, reaching their highest lead of the game of 8 points. This was followed by a shot clock violation on the Pride and Hofstra’s Biggie Patterson, who had received a technical foul earlier on, fouled out.
Hofstra showed they still had life and were able to dig themselves out of their offensive hole. With 42 seconds remaining, the Pride entered the double bonus and would keep the game within 3 points. However, these efforts were not enough as Preston Edmead and Cruz Davis would foul out, giving the Knights the win.
The final score at Addition Financial Arena was 78-82 in favor of UCF.
UCF’s Riley Kugel led both teams in scoring with 19 points. Cruz Davis led Hofstra in scoring with 17.
The Knights will return to action on Saturday, November 8th at 4 p.m. as they face Vanderbilt at Addition Financial Arena.
