UCF sophomore Justin McBride could not be stopped, scoring a career-best 31 points as the Knights beat Bethune-Cookman 75-67 to improve to 4-1 on the season on Sunday.
After a bit of a slow start with the score at 7-7, the Knights took the lead and never looked back the rest of the game.
McBride’s career night helped the Knights keep the lead hovering around 10 points through much of the second half.
“My teammates just found me. That’s all it was. I was posting hard and my teammates just really made an effort to throw me the ball. They just found me. I started scoring a little bit and the basket got bigger and bigger. I was knocking down free throws, and it just felt good,” McBride said after the game.
UCF head coach Donnie Jones had played McBride sparingly through the first four games of the season, only 28 minutes total. His hard work prompted Jones to work McBride into the game plan for Sunday’s contest.
“I wanted to get him in early because I thought he had worked hard the last few days. I wanted to try and get him established and get him going. He just really, really played well. I was happy for him,” Jones said.
Overall, the Knights shot 52.2 percent from the floor and only turned the ball over nine times. The Knights will need to use the momentum as they host Georgia Southern on Tuesday and Florida State on Saturday.
