Orlando, FL– A heartbreaking loss for the UCF Knights as they’ve now lost their fifth conference game to the Baylor Bears 77-69 Wednesday night.
Despite being ranked #18 in the country, Baylor had dropped three games in a row and was desperately looking for a win.
UCF Point Guard Darius Johnson was on fire playing like the best player in the country as he helped lead the Knights in the first half. Johnson came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, immediately hitting a left-wing three from Antwann Jones, and then following it up with a left elbow jumper. A few possessions later, Johnson hit a right-wing three to get the crowd ignited. UCF shot a season-high 15-26 (57.7%) from the field and connected on 8-13 (61.5%) from three in that first half as they had led the Bears 38-32.
UCF came out in the second half and continued their dominant play for the first 13 minutes before they let the game slip away from them. Darius Johnson picked up right where he left off in that first half by hitting a nice step-back three on the left wing over Jayden Nunn, and he followed it up with a deep two on the left wing pushing UCF’s lead to eight.
After UCF had control of the lead for a majority of the game, late in the second half, Baylor clawed their way back into the game before taking it over. UCF’s Marchelus Avery hit a deep right-wing three to put the Knights up 56-55, and that was the last time the Knights would have the lead in the game.
With 6:25 remaining in the game, Baylor went down the court and hit a layup and Langston Love connected on a left wing three to push the Bears lead to 60-56. A few possessions later, Baylor was able to move the ball quickly and it ended up in the hands of Ja’Kobe Walter, who hit his only field goal of the day (1-4) as he hit a right-wing three as the shot clock expired and that pushed the lead to 65-58.
The Knights tried to make the game interesting down the stretch as Marcheulus Avery hit a big three to cut the lead to six with just over two minutes left, but it was too little, too late as the Bears closed them out.
Despite a hot shooting night for UCF where they shot 27-50 from the field and 14-27 from deep, it was a total team collapse in that second half. The Knights didn’t take care of the ball as they finished with 16 turnovers, they didn’t get to the line often as they only had seven attempts, and Baylor got whatever they wanted all evening in the paint as they scored 30 down there.
“I feel like we wanted to limit their threes, but obviously we didn’t do a good job of that,” UCF’s Point Guard Darius Johnson on the team’s defensive effort tonight. “I feel like they opened up the paint a little bit more for them to get opportunities. You know we’ll be able to watch film and see where the mishaps happened.”
Darius Johnson put together a great night despite it coming in a losing effort as he finished the evening with 23 points, a season-high 10 assists, and shot 5-7 from behind the arch. Johnson now moved into UCF’s top 10 all-time in assists.
The Knights will look to bounce-back on Saturday afternoon as they will play host to the No. 23 Oklahoma Sooners at Addition Financial Arena.