Knights hold on, top Huskies
Amid a season filled with adversity, UCF basketball players knew they needed a win Wednesday night.
After a 62-53 loss to UConn in Storrs on Jan. 10, the Knights turned the tide Wednesday night at CFE Arena, picking up a 70-61 victory over the Huskies.
B.J. Taylor led the Knights (14-7, 5-4 AAC) with 20 points and was a major factor in controlling the game.
“There was just too much B.J. Taylor,” UConn coach Kevin Ollie said after the loss.
The Huskies (11-11, 4-5 AAC) got 15 points from Terry Larrier.
The victory gives UCF a strong start to the final stretch of its season, which continues with a home game Saturday against Houston.
It also marked just the second time in 13 meetings UCF has defeated UConn and the first time since both teams joined the American Athletic Conference.
The Huskies have struggled this season and have recorded just one road win. At Florida Gulf Coast, the men's and women's basketball teams much in common.
Members of the coaching staffs get along, regularly collaborating on ideas.
The teams practice in succession, one team getting have off the floor while the other is getting set to go to work.
There are even seven doubleheader dates on the schedule, the team that's not playing sometimes becoming a cheering section for the other.
“In a sense we play for each other,” women's senior guard Taylor Gradinjan said.
“We don't want to be the team to let the other down, and vice versa.” So far, so good. FGCU stands alone right now — the only school in Division I basketball to still be undefeated in men's and women's conference play.
There are 349 schools offering both men's and women's basketball across 32 conferences in Division I, and 348 of them have seen at least one of their teams fall in a league game this season.
Not the Eagles. Once again, the place known as Dunk City in honor of its scintillating Sweet Sixteen men's tournament run in 2013 is finding ways to get noticed.