Nov. 29, 2005
ORLANDO - Freshman guard Jermaine Taylor came off of the bench to score a season-high 15 points to lift the UCF men's basketball team to a 61-48 victory over visiting Bethune-Cookman, Tuesday evening at Torchy Clark Court at UCF Arena.
Taylor nailed four treys for the Golden Knights, who improved to 4-0 with the win. Bethune-Cookman (2-4) led 30-29 at halftime, but UCF limited the Wildcats to just 4-of-30 (13.3 percent) overall shooting in the second half.
With Bethune-Cookman leading by a point with 15 minutes remaining in the contest, Taylor took over, scoring seven-consecutive points. He started the personal run with back-to-back three-pointers and then had a layup to give UCF a 42-35 lead with 12:30 on the clock.
UCF has won nine-consecutive regular season games and has claimed nine in a row at home.
After leading by as many as four in the opening period, the Wildcats went cold in the second half. The visitors missed all 11 of their attempts from deep in the half and shot 10-of-19 from the free-throw line.
"I thought our defense did step-up in the second half," said UCF head coach Kirk Speraw. "I thought we tried to make it difficult for them to get good looks and get into a rhythm."
Sophomore center Adam Gill helped spark the UCF comeback, scoring eight of his 12 points in the second half. He canned back-to-back jumpers to help UCF build an 11-point advantage with eight minutes to play. A minute later, senior guard Justin Rose found an open Gill on a fastbreak for an easy dunk to put the game away.
The Golden Knights committed 20 turnovers and shot 48 percent for the game from the field.
Senior forward Anthony Williams scored eight points and added six rebounds. Junior forward Josh Peppers grabbed a career-high nine boards in the victory.
Speraw now has 199 victories and needs just one win to reach the 200-career victory mark.
Sam Barber scored a game-high 21 points for Bethune-Cookman, but made just 6-of-20 field-goal attempts. Antonio Webb totaled 10 points on just 2-of-15 shooting from the field. The Wildcats hit 2-of-16 (12.5) from deep for the game.
The Golden Knights will hit the road for the first time this season on Saturday, facing 11th-ranked Florida at noon in Gainesville. The contest will be televised live on Sun Sports.