The UCF Knights ended their seven-game losing streak, defeating the Utah Utes 76-72 at home on Sunday night.
Before Sunday night’s matchup, UCF hadn’t won a game since January 25th, and Utah did not make it easy for them to end the drought.
The Utes came out hot in the first half, getting off to a 15-4 lead that UCF quickly trimmed down to a two point lead. UCF led 30-29 at the end of the first half, and the second half was just as competitive. With eight minutes left in the game, UCF took a 10 point lead, prompting Utah to go on a 12-3 run to make it a one point game. With just 11 seconds left, the game was knotted at 72 apiece. That was until Darius Johnson made a game-winning layup with three seconds left to put the Knights up 74-72. UCF went on to win the game 76-72.
Moustapha Thiam led UCF with 18 points, shooting 8-of-10 from the field and knocking down one of his two three-point attempts. As a team, the Knights didn’t shoot great from beyond the arc, making just 25% of their 24 attempts. Thiam and Johnson were the only UCF starters to knock down a triple. Tyler Hendricks and Dallan Coleman shot a combined 4-of-7 from three off the bench, which was a huge part of UCF’s success. UCF’s bench added 33 points, shooting 48% from the field. Jordan Ivy-Curry shot 0-of-5 from three, but made up for it by shooting 5-of-5 from inside the arc, as well as adding four assists and four steals.
Six different players accounted for 13 UCF steals. The Knights also recorded four blocks with Thiam being responsible for two of those rejections. Simply put, UCF’s defense was on display Sunday night. UCF allowed just 72 points, which is the least points they have allowed since that January 25th win over TCU. The Knights forced 19 turnovers, scoring 20 points off of them. They also had eight less fouls than Utah. The Utes only shot 10 free throws, making eight of them.
UCF Coach Johny Dawkins acknowledged that it’s been a tough road and followed by saying, “Our guys came out with a winning effort, I thought we had some other winning efforts, we came up short. Today our winning effort, you know, got rewarded.”
Dawkins went on to praise his players, “I’m just really proud of our guys for the way they responded after everything that we’ve gone through over the past several weeks.”
UCF has the chance to win two straight games for the first time since December of 2024 as they prepare to face Kansas State on February 26th at home.