UCF Basketball falls behind the rallies, early to defeat Wichita State.
Orlando, FL—It's a win, but it had its ups and downs. The UCF Knights took on the Wichita State Shockers at the Editions Financial Arena. Entering the game, both teams were under .500 in conference games, with UCF holding a 5–6 record, while 3–5 thus opening Wichita State's American Athletic Conference game. The crowd looks fuller than the regular one, which isn't saying much and the Nightmare student section is as rowdy as ever.
Despite an electrifying crossover deep two point score to start the scoring for UCF, they quickly went down 11-2. The Knights woke up after being called a time out by UCF Head Basketball Coach Johnny Dawkins. At that point, his men came back out and Brandon rallied with great stealth and was a three-pointer catalyst for a 12-4 run by the Knights.
UCF finally took their first lead of the game after nine minutes of action with a Darius Perry layup, Perry's thousandth career point. That's when Darin Green Jr. started firing, firing back to back deep three point shots. Green led the Knights in ending the game with
As the Knights advanced, an altercation occurred between the Wichita State coaching staff and Greene, with the UCF players stripping him of the position. After the controversy, every UCF basket resulted in the Wichita State Bench losing sight of it. It seemed to have caused another spark in the UCF offense as guards began hitting their outside shots and Scream Mbak Deong scored six quick points, including a big alley oop of a feed from CJ Walker.
The Knights returned to a 43–29 lead at halftime, and returned to their best form with early scoring from Deong and Darius Johnson. However, it started to slow down and Wichita State's Dexter Dennis hit two boundaries and gave the Shockers full momentum. After a 13-0 Shockers run they found themselves two points down with only over 13 minutes of action.
AIRLANDO ‼😱 @MbackeDiong pic.twitter.com/ounf4kdni3
— UCF Men’s Hoops (@UCF_MBB) February 9, 2022
It didn't matter to Green, however, as he went up, Court scored a deep two, then a three-pointer went off after a good defense. The Shockers scored four more points, but scoring nearly stalled and neither team scored for more than two minutes. Walker reopened the scoring with a three-pointer. Both teams continued to trade scores, but a four-point game by Mahan gave the Knights an eight-point lead with less than three minutes to spare.
Knights can’t buy a bucket right now Shockers on 13 point run only down two
— STE🅿️HEN LEONARD (@ucf_weekly) February 9, 2022
That's when Wichita State made another comeback. Wichita State's Tyson Etienne hit two three-pointers on his way to downtown and the Shockers only had less than two minutes to go down the aisle.
A quick basket and a free throw by Mahan gifted UCF a 69–64 lead in just less than half a minute. The teams then traded free throws with Mahan bringing his total to 19 points and putting the Knights ahead of an unassailable lead with their last two points. The Knights won 71–66 over the Shockers.
Yessir ‼️ @MbackeDiong pic.twitter.com/8w313bldMC
— UCF Men’s Hoops (@UCF_MBB) February 9, 2022
to basil
UCF will be at home next Monday, with a final-place game against Tulsa. The Knights will look to continue their home momentum, having not lost at home to UCF in the month of February.