UCF wraps up road trip with crucial showdown with No. 19 BYU
UCF basketball is ready to conclude its 5-day, 2-game trek in Utah with a showdown in opposition to No. 19 BYU on the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday evening.
The Knights are coming off a nail-biter in opposition to Utah, the place level guard Themus Fulks nailed two free throws with 3 seconds left for a 73-71 win over the Utes.
“[It] just shows how good this league is and it’s a gauntlet every single night, every opponent,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins mentioned after the sport. “It’s only a operate of how I assumed our guys did an ideal job simply discovering a means on the finish to make performs and win the sport.
“Our guys came in understanding just how good a team they were and we knew we had to play for 40 minutes, and it took all 40 minutes tonight.”
Fulks completed with a game-high 24 factors whereas ahead Jordan Burks added 14.
UCF shot 53% (30 of 57) from the sector, scoring 18 factors off of 11 Utes’ turnovers.
“That’s important for us. I thought we did a good job in that area, earning some points,” mentioned Dawkins. “Definitely creating points off turnovers is a big, big part of what we want to do.”
The Knights have been with out starter (*19*)who missed Saturday’s sport after struggling an obvious decrease leg damage through the workforce’s 82-71 win over TCU on Feb. 17. The senior guard, who’s tied with Fulks in main the workforce in scoring with 14 factors per sport, needed to be helped to the locker room following the win.
Dawkins mentioned Kugel’s standing stays day-to-day.
It was the second straight win for UCF (19-7, 8-6 Big 12), which moved one step nearer to a berth within the NCAA Tournament. The Knights have 4 video games remaining and will all however lock up a spot within the 68-team subject with one other win.
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UCF is forty sixth within the newest NCAA NET rankings, the first system utilized by the Division I basketball committee to guage groups for NCAA Tournament choice. The Knights enter Tuesday’s contest with 4 Quad 1 wins, together with victories over Texas A&M, Kansas and Texas Tech.
UCF has been projected to be wherever from a seventh to a tenth seed within the newest bracketology projections.
BYU (20-7, 8-6 Big 12) is 13-2 at house, with the 2 losses coming in opposition to Arizona (Jan. 26) and Houston (Feb. 7). The Cougars are using excessive after a 79-69 win over No. 6 Iowa State final Saturday.
Freshman ahead AJ Dybantsa leads the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 24.6 factors per sport, whereas sophomore guard Robert Wright is averaging 18 factors per sport.
BYU will probably be with out senior guard Richie Saunders (18 ppg.), who suffered a season-ending ACL damage on Feb. 15.
UCF, in the meantime, is winless in opposition to the Cougars (0-4).
The Knights return house to host Baylor on Saturday and Oklahoma State (March 3) earlier than wrapping up the common season on the road at West Virginia (March 6).
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