UCF dunks way to season-opening win
A dunk party took place Wednesday inside Addition Financial Arena as the UCF men’s basketball team ran past Robert Morris 69-59 to open the season.
The Colonials opened the second half on a 7-0 run and cut UCF’s 17-point halftime lead to single digits five minutes in.
Sparked by a one-handed slam by fifth-year senior Darius Perry, the Knights responded with a flurry.
Minutes later, junior forward C.J. Walker had a putback dunk and redshirt sophomore guard Tyem Freeman slammed it to extend UCF’s lead to 53-41 with 10:41 left.
“I just fed off his dunk,” Walker said. “I was like, ‘I got to get me one.’ That was crazy.”
The Knights wouldn’t look back. Perry led them with 18 points while Darin Green Jr. finished with 14 thanks to strong first-half shooting.
UCF coach Johnny Dawkins liked what he saw.
“That’s who we are and that’s how we want to play,” Dawkins said. “We want to be a tenacious defense and we want to turn that defense into offense. I thought we showed, in spurts, that we can do that very well.”
UNLV transfer Cheikh Mbacke Diong made his presence known in 23 minutes, blocking 5 shots, grabbing 7 rebounds and scoring 4 points.
Freeman, a junior-college All-American transfer, scored 9 points off the bench.
“No matter who was scoring, we were excited like we scored the ball ourselves,” Perry said. “The momentum kept going and the energy flowed and we just kept running with it.”
The Knights led 20-18 early in the first half before using a 22-7 run in the final 7:53 before the break. It began with 5 straight points from Walker.
Perry sank 3-of-4 shots from 3, leading UCF with 13 points at halftime. Perry and Green provided a spark early.
Green made his first two 3s while UCF led 14-4 less than five minutes into the game.
A short 2½-minute scoring drought let Robert Morris cut the 10-point deficit to 3 before Dawkins called timeout at 13:14. A few minutes later, Walker stepped on the court to start a run and UCF led 42-25 at halftime.
The Knights led by as many as 19 with 3:44 remaining but only won by 10 as the Colonials hit 4 of their final 5 shots. Dawkins wants to see a better lategame shot selection from his team.
“We had a 16-, 17-point lead, and [Robert Morris] was still coming,” Dawkins said. “I thought we kind of aided them by taking a couple of quick shots and we can’t do that.”
The Knights will need another strong offensive performance when they travel south to face the ACC’s Miami on Saturday. The Hurricanes opened their season with a 77-67 victory over Canisius on Tuesday night.
UCF last beat Miami in 2013 and the Hurricanes own an 8-2 all-time series lead. Perry isn’t intimated by facing the Sunshine State opponent.
“Coach Dawkins says every day, every game counts as one,” Perry said. “So whether we’re playing the Sisters of the Blind or Miami, it doesn’t matter.”