The Knights
UCF defense key to defeating Tulane
battle for a tough win in the 60-51 victory over Tulane on Sunday.
UCF didn’t wow anyone with the way it played Sunday afternoon in its 60-51 victory against Tulane at the CFE Arena.
The most important thing on Senior Day, however, was appropriately spelled out by A.J. Davis, who played in one of his final games as a Knight.
“We won the game, so we’re just happy,” said Davis, who eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career, which also includes a season at Tennessee prior to his transferring to UCF.
“It probably wasn’t our best performance. Probably wasn’t our worst. I think we played good defense.”
If not for the play on the defensive end, UCF could very well have been headed into the American Athletic Conference Tournament, which starts Thursday at Amway Center, reeling from four
consecutive losses. However, the Knights’ defense carried them when they needed it to top the Green Wave.
“We always throw words around like hardfought, but that was a hardfought win,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “Both teams made the game look ugly at times because both teams were so engaged and locked in defensively. I’m just proud of our guys. They showed a lot of heart to win that game.”
UCF didn’t exactly light things up offensively, but the Knights’ play on the defensive end created problems for Tulane. The Green Wave shot just 39 percent (19 of 48) from the floor and the Knights held top scoring threat Melvin Frazier to 13 points.
Scrappy play from UCF forwards Chad Brown and Rokas Ulvydas helped. The pair combined for four blocks plus nine rebounds and contested numerous Tulane shot attempts in the paint. Both players were equally active on offense. A Brown dunk from a Davis pass to start the second half got UCF rolling and an Ulvydas one-hander in the paint late in the game helped the Knights secure the win.
“[Brown] was terrific. He made a lot of plays and I had challenged both he and Rokas the last few games,” Dawkins said. “I thought they really stepped up and made some huge plays for us and defensively [Brown] was a force, blocking shots, changing shots and that’s what we need from him.
“When Chad plays, you know he’s going to bring us energy and I felt that tonight.”
Two critical plays by the UCF defense came inside three minutes remaining. The Knights’ feisty defense forced a Tulane shot-clock violation with the game tied 50-50 and then Brown came up with a steal with 1:45 left.
Out of a UCF timeout, B.J. Taylor buried a 3-pointer, then Dayon Griffin hit another and a backcourt steal and layup from Terrell Allen sealed the victory. UCF could breathe a sigh of relief.
The Knights had let Tulane rally from a 12-point second-half deficit, but they’ll head into conference tournament play as the No. 6 seed with a 9 p.m. game against East Carolina on Thursday.
Taylor led the Knights with 19 points.
Davis had 11 points and became the second UCF player to reach 1,000 points for his career this season. His good friend Taylor eclipsed the mark at Tulsa on Feb. 21.
“For both of us, we’re just proud of each other,” Davis said. “We’ve seen each other grow through this whole journey so it’s an awesome feeling to be able to be on the same court and be able to experience that together … in the same season.”