Knights are shut out of NIT

The UCF basketball team learned it would not advance to the NIT after the bracket was announced on ESPNU Sunday night.

The Knights suffered a 84-56 blowout loss to American Athletic Conference Tournament runnerup Houston Friday night. The loss capped a 19-13 season, during which UCF was forced to fight through numerous injuries.

Three AAC teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament — Cincinnati, Wichita State and Houston. Temple was the only AAC team to receive an NIT invitation, coming in as a No. 5 seed.

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins hoped his team had done enough to make another postseason run toward Madison Square Garden.

Last year, Dawkins led his squad to the NIT Final Four for the first time in school history during his inaugural season with the Knights.

However, promising transfer Aubrey Dawkins suffered a season-ending shoulder injury shortly before the opener. That was compounded by losing point guard and team leader B.J. Taylor for 16 games with a foot injury after the November season opener against Mercer.

The injuries continued to mount as backup point guard Chance McSpadden suffered multiple injuries and last season’s AAC Defensive Player of the Year Tacko Fall ended his season early due to a shoulder injury.

The No. 23 UCF (13-3) baseball team extended its win streak to 12 games on Sunday with a 10-8 victory over Siena (0-14).

The Knights swept the three-game series played Saturday and Sunday at John Euliano Park. UCF got 14 strikeouts from the pitching staff and 15 hits on offense during the final matchup Sunday.

No. 4 Florida State (14-2) dropped both ends of a doubleheader Saturday at Wake Forest (7-9), losing the first game 4-3 on a walk-off home run and the second 8-1 at David F. Couch Ballpark.

Florida freshman Jordan Butler's walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Gators a 3-2 win over Rhode Island to sweep the weekend series against the Rams.

UF will host rival Florida State on Tuesday.