Feb. 18, 2006
DALLAS - The SMU men's basketball team shot 54 percent from the floor for the game as it posted a 77-55 Conference USA victory over visiting UCF on Saturday evening at Moody Coliseum. Junior forward Josh Peppers scored a team-high 14 points for the Golden Knights (10-13, 4-6 C-USA).
Bryan Hopkins shot 7-of-10 overall for the Mustangs (12-12, 4-7) on his way to a game-high 23 points. SMU dominated inside, scoring 38 points in the paint and blocking seven shots.
"We knew that this was going to be a tough ballgame," said UCF head coach Kirk Speraw. "SMU has some talented players and their size also hurt us. When we got down, we did not do some things offensively that would have allowed us to get back into the game."
The Mustangs led 36-22 at halftime and went up by as many as 22 points in the second half.
UCF shot just 28.6 percent overall in the first half and finished the game 20-of-56 (35.7 percent) from the field.
The Golden Knights grabbed the lead four minutes into the game when senior guard Justin Rose stole an errant pass at midcourt and then raced to the hoop for the slam dunk over Hopkins. He was fouled on the dunk and after the three-point play, UCF had an 11-8 edge.
UCF then went cold and the hosts used an 18-4 run to pull away. Following Rose's dunk, the Golden Knights missed 14 of its next 15 shots. Rose finally got the team back on track, nailing a jumper with eight minutes to go in the half to cut the deficit to 26-15.
Senior guard Troy Lindbeck hit 4-of-5 three-point attempts and finished with 12 points in the losing effort. Rose totaled 11 points and three steals and senior forward Anthony Williams recorded a season-high 13 rebounds to go with nine points.
UCF and SMU were meeting for the first time. Both schools are new to Conference USA this season as the Mustangs moved from the Western Athletic Conference.
SMU forced 16 UCF turnovers and shot 74.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Devon Pearson had a double-double with 17 points and 10 boards for the Mustangs. Bamba Fall, Ike Ofoegbu and Donatas Rackauskas each recorded two blocks.
The Golden Knights return home to host East Carolina on Wednesday. Tip-off at Torchy Clark Court at UCF Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.