The UCF Knights used a late first-half run to blow past the FAU Owls and take their fourth straight victory this season.
The UCF Knights were having struggles cracking the FAU Owls defense early on in the first half. The Owls were forcing turnovers and denying entry into the lane for much of the game. The Knights could not get any cuts to the rim.
Then it all changed.
FAU may have gotten a little too confident trying to score over Tacko Fall. He changed a couple shots and blocked one late in the first half that sparked transition opportunity.
FAU may have simply stopped making shots. After hitting four of their first eight shots, the Owls finished the first half 6 for 20. The cold shooting carried over into the second half and a couple of air balls over Fall in the first half got the Knights out and running.
FAU may have simply been too slow against the UCF transition play. The Knights started getting out on the break with Shaheed Davis and A.J. Davis slashing their way through the lane or kicking it back out to 3-point shooters like Adonys Henriquez and Daiquan Walker.
It all came together suddenly for UCF as the team went on a 11-0 run to end the first half and take an 11-point lead to the locker room. The run continued into the second half as it finished as a 20-6 spurt for the Knight. The Owls never made a push to truly threaten the lead and fell 75-61 at CFE Arena on Saturday.
“I don’t know what changed other than our focus got different,” coach Donnie Jones said. “We got some stops defensively and we got out and started running in transition. I thought we were just walking the ball up and playing their pace. I told those guys if they miss or make, we’ve got to push it and score in transition because that is where we got our buckets in the first half.”
The Knights started off the game struggling mightily from the floor. The Owls were good at keeping the Knights from attacking much in the early parts of the game. Jones noted his team was settling for individualistic play and that caught UCF a bit off guard.
But the team adjusted. The Knights locked in, especially on defense, and started pushing the ball into the paint where their size and length really began to play a factor.
A.J. Davis scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead the Knights as he has begun to find a ton of comfort in his role with this team. Shaheed Davis added 12 points and seven rebounds too. Tacko Fall scored eight points and added six blocks, using his size to jumpstart UCF’s anemic offense.
“I just feel like we started pushing the ball more and started getting defensive stops and what they were doing,” Adonys Henriquez said.
The Knights outscored the Owls 40-26 in the paint and dominated the game inside. FAU shot 36.8 percent from the floor for the game and just 5 of 18 from beyond the arc. And UCF scored 16 second chance points off 12 offensive rebounds.
The Knights dominated the game in many ways, eventually able to hit cruise control in the second half and keep the deficit around 14 points for much of the half. They made shots to stem any mini runs, but never really expanded the lead out too far (biggest lead was 18 points).
Jones had some complaints with how his bigs fouled — FAU took 21 of its 23 free throw attempts in the second half. But the Knights had the game firmly under control, holding the Owls to an offensive rating of 91 points per 100 possessions.
“I am most pleased with our rebounding and obviously our defense,” Jones said. “We held them to 30-something percent from the field and 20-something percent from the 3-point line. That’s kind of what it is every game. Defensively, it has given us a chance to win every night. Offensively, we still got to continue to take care of the basketball and execute. We still haven’t done a great job when we get a lead to build on that lead.”
The Owls slow-it-down game did not work as the Knights were able to speed things up to a 67-possession game — the team’s average is 69.9 possessions per game.
It was indeed the case that once the Knights settled in defensively and began to be able to dictate the pace and tempo of the game, the Owls just fell too far behind and could not recover.
The offense was good enough despite 11 turnovers and 14 fast-break points for the Owls. That might be a sign of the team’s continued youth.
But UCF now has four straight wins for the first time since the 2013-14. And they have a good feeling about their formula and how they can win moving forward heading into a week break to finish off finals.
