The UCF Knights have had a season that has left a lot to be desired in a lot of areas.
Have the Knights taken steps forward? Have they provided a solid base to continue building from? Have they discovered a program identity? What do we make of this team?
These are all questions that have been asked and had only partial answers through the Knights’ 2016 campaign. Questions that have frustrated the coaching staff surely as much as fans alike. There lacked any consistency it seemed.
Even coach Donnie Jones was questioning his senior leaders at various points in the season, asking them to produce more and show the way for a young team still looking for its form. Those dark days in February as the conference schedule seemed to be punishing UCF — those games against the East Carolinas and South Floridas coming in the season’s opening weeks — sent the team into a spiral.
The final home game for the senior class of Daiquan Walker, Shaheed Davis and Staphon Blair showed the bridge is there. The connections are there and maybe there is some hope.
Tulane had control of the game when Tacko Fall checked in for senior Staphon Blair and the pair of senior Daiquan Walker and the freshman Tacko Fall began to retake control and propel UCF to a 73-65 victory in the CFE Arena finale for 2016.
Walker scored 20 points and Fall added 17 points and 13 rebounds, including 13 points in the final nine minutes as the Knights erased a 21-8 deficit and took the lead before halftime.
With the defense beginning to focus on stopping Fall, it opened things back up on the perimeter for Walker and Adonys Henriquez. The sophomore Henriquez scored 16 points as he his 4 of 8 3-pointers and he and Walker combined for six of UCF’s seven 3-point makes.
It took UCF some time to get some of the pieces to fit together. There have been starts and stops and mistakes along the way. Perhaps they all came together too late in some ways.
For this night, this final home game, UCF got it all together and connected the past with its future.
