Dawkins stresses poise, patience after Auburn loss

Knights need to avoid getting frazzled when opponents go on runs

The UCF men’s basketball team trailed by 3 points at halftime against No. 21 Auburn on the road Wednesday. The Knights lost by 17.

While Johnny Dawkins wants his team to play fast by turning their press defense into easy offense, the UCF coach said the Knights (4-2) were actually pushing the pace too much at times.

“We have to play with more poise,” Dawkins told 96.9 The Game after the 85-68 loss. “They’re a good basketball team and I thought as they started to build a lead, we started playing uncharacteristically too fast.

“We were quick shooting and we really weren’t moving the basketball like we did in the first half and that compounded it.”

Darin Green Jr. hit a jump shot at 14:31 of the second half to cut the deficit to 5. The jumper, however, would be UCF’s only field goal for the next nine minutes, when Darius Perry made a layup to end the drought.

Auburn was well in control — up 70-56.

That poor shooting happened in large part due to a lack of ball movement, Dawkins said. UCF finished with only 9 assists, compared to Auburn’s 16.

“They kept it in their hands trying to make plays and we can’t do that,” Dawkins said. “We have to still trust each other out there on the floor move the basketball and search out a great shot and I thought we settled for some difficult shots because we were trying to play catch up.”

The Knights return home Sunday to face Bethune-Cookman at 2 p.m. UCF then has almost a full week off before hosting North Carolina A&T on Dec. 11.

Dawkins shared what he told he his team following the Auburn loss and said watching film will help avoid another second half fallout similar to Wednesday night.

“When they started building the

lead, we’ve got to be more poised and we have to be more patient in those situations,” he said. “We’ll watch a lot of tape on that, but I thought we competed well. We have to be a little better with our thought

process in those moments where a team has momentum.”

BUTCH DILL/AP Within striking distance of Auburn down 3, UCF didn’t make sound decisions or take good shots, which led to just 9 assists on 21 field goals, coach Johnny Dawkins said.