Jan. 16, 2010
By Doug Richards
UCFAthletics.com
TULSA, Okla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Sophomore guard A.J. Rompza (Chicago, Ill.) scored all of his career-high 19 points Saturday versus Tulsa after intermission. Like the Knights, the point guard played well in the second half, but could not overcome a difficult opening 20 minutes.
The Golden Hurricane, who have now won 20-straight contests at the Reynolds Center, led by 20 points at the break and rolled to a 90-70 Conference USA win.
"We did not have a very good start. They came out and executed well offensively," UCF head coach Kirk Speraw said. "They established their inside game immediately and then played off of that."
Tulsa (14-3, 4-0 C-USA) shot 54.4 percent overall for the game, and forced 15 UCF turnovers. The hosts shot 48.3 percent in the opening half, held the Knights scoreless for a 6:30 stretch early and took a 40-20 edge into the break.
UCF falls to 9-8 overall and 1-2 in league play with the loss.
The contest was the first of two in a row away from Orlando for the Knights, who will play at Houston Wednesday. UCF's next home contest is a week from today versus UTEP at 5 p.m.
Four Tulsa players finished with double-digits in scoring, led by 22 points from Justin Hurtt. League preseason player of the year Jerome Jordan totaled 21 points, 11 boards and four blocks.
Rompza's points all came in just 15 minutes after intermission. He shot 6-of-8 overall and hit 3-of-4 3-point attempts. Freshman forward Keith Clanton (Orlando, Fla.) totaled 11 points for UCF.
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