Knights romp over rival Bulls
The serendipity of UCF basketball hitting a seasonhigh nine 3-pointers during a 72-57 win over rival USF with former player Matt Williams in the building wasn’t lost on head coach Johnny Dawkins.
“It never hurts when Matt’s in the building. He definitely brings us some good luck,” Dawkins said with a laugh. “Maybe that’s why all the 3s fell for us tonight.”
Last year, it was Williams putting on a long-range shooting clinic at home with a school-record 11 3-pointers against the Bulls.
Senior forward A.J. Davis didn’t have the same volume as Williams but he did turn in perfection, going three-for-three from behind the arc to score a career-high 26 points while getting nine rebounds.
Davis and Dayon Griffin combined for seven of the team’s nine 3-pointers to bolster the Knights’ outside shooting for the night and the team’s season sweep of USF.
The victory marked the team’s second consecutive series sweep after beating Memphis for the second time Sunday with a historic road victory.
Players are hoping Wednesday could serve as a turning point in a season marred by injuries. Chance McSpadden is the latest victim, having suffered a broken finger at Memphis. Dawkins confirmed the backup point guard would miss the rest of the season with just weeks left to compete.
Coincidentally, it was this exact time last season when UCF started a critical season-ending run in the American Athletic Conference that built a path toward the NIT Final Four.
“I feel like we came together during that time last year and it’s kind of coming together again this year,” Davis said. “So we’re playing good basketball going into the final stretch and that’s all we can look at it just continuing to play good basketball and keep on winning games.”
Poor free-throw shooting and turnovers hindered UCF’s progress this season, but Dawkins has seen improvement in the past two games since his heart-toheart with players about cleaning up execution.
The Knights turned the ball over just seven times, marking the first sub double-digit tally all season. UCF also fared better from the free-throw line, shooting 78 percent — a drastic improvement from their average of 63 percent, last in the AAC.
Dawkins has preached UCF’s goals are still in sight. In order to make a formidable case for an NCAA Tournament bid, the Knights had to beat struggling Memphis and USF. The hard part comes next as UCF (16-9 overall, 7-6 AAC) will look to extend its twogame win streak when it hosts SMU 11 a.m. Saturday.