Orlando, Fla. – George Washington dominated UCF and handed them their fifth loss of the season and the Knights’ record is now 6-5.
George Washington started to pull away early in the first-half, but UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones made some early substitutions that helped the Knights tie up the game. George Washington left the knights open behind the three-point line and the Knights capitalized for the most part, shooting 41.7 percent from three-point range in the first-half.
In the second-half, it was different story for the Knights; UCF was unable to score and shot 32 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from the three-point line.
“Our spirit got broke there a few times, where we’re struggling to score and when you got a young basketball team, sometimes these guys got to understand it starts on the defensive end,” said UCF Head Coach Donnie Jones. “We couldn’t get stops and we couldn’t score on the other end.”
George Washington shot 51.9 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three-point range in the second half and had a field-goal percentage of 55.8 percent for the game.
With UCF’s poor play in the second-half, the knights could not overcome the experience of George Washington, which started three seniors, one junior, and one sophomore.
“They’re a top 25 team,” said junior Tanksley Efianayi. “It was a close game going into the second half and we just didn’t want it bad enough. We didn’t compete hard enough…and we didn’t score enough points.”
“It’s a gut check,” added junior Justin McBride. “Each individual has to want to win or hate losing more than they want to win and you can’t have four people on the court and one guy floating around. Everyone has to be on the same page.”
The Knights are done with non-conference play and their next game is on the road versus East Carolina on January, 2 at 4:30pm.
