Nov. 22, 2005
ORLANDO - Junior Josh Peppers scored 18 points to help the UCF men's basketball team to an 86-67 victory visiting Nova Southeastern at UCF Arena on Tuesday evening. The Golden Knights (2-0) have won seven-consecutive home games.
After leading by just eight points at halftime, UCF shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half to pull away for the win. The Golden Knights limited the Sharks (1-2) to just 2-of-15 (13.3 percent) shooting from three-point range for the game.
Junior Lavell Payne shot 6-of-8 from the field on his way to 15 points. He also added six rebounds in the win. Sophomore Mike O'Donnell totaled 14 points and six assists for the hosts.
Peppers and Payne each totaled four points as UCF started the game on an 11-0 run. Nova Southeastern answered back with a 23-9 run of its own.
After a Calvin Jenkins jumper with 8:54 on the clock in the opening half, the Sharks led, 23-19. Payne helped UCF regain the advantage, canning a trey two minutes later to put the hosts up by two. Senior Justin Rose nailed a pair of threes with under three minutes to go in the half to help the Golden Knights take a 43-35 advantage into halftime.
For the game, UCF hit 33-of-70 (47.1 percent) of its field-goal attempts, but made just 11-of-31 (35.5) from deep. Behind 12 boards from David Naylor, the Sharks held a 44-43 edge on the glass.
"We have a lot of work to do," said UCF head coach Kirk Speraw. "I thought we had some (good) moments, but we are too inconsistent both offensively and defensively. Obviously, we have a long way to go defensively to be where we need to be."
Following a basket from sophomore Adam Gill and triples from Peppers and O'Donnell, the Golden Knights pulled away early in the second half. When O'Donnell nailed his second three of the contest with 13:33 to play, UCF grabbed a 61-46 advantage.
The Golden Knights' lead would grow to as many as 19 in the second half and freshman Jermaine Taylor capped the evening with a follow-up dunk off of a Payne miss with under a minute to play.
In only 15 minutes off of the bench, Rose finished with 10 points. Senior Anthony Williams totaled eight points, eight boards and three blocks in 16 minutes of action as a reserve. Despite a 3-of-10 overall shooting performance in just his second collegiate game, Taylor scored eight points and had eight rebounds.
Jenkins paced the Sharks with 13 points and also totaled six boards. Naylor added 12 points and Tim Coenraad chipped in with 11 points.
The Golden Knights return to action on Saturday, hosting local rival Stetson. Tip-off at UCF Arena is slated for 7:30 p.m. The contest will be aired on the UCF ISP Sports Network and its flagship station, WQTM - 740 THE TEAM.