Nov. 13, 2013
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By Doug Richards
UCFKnights.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - Playing in front of a huge crowd Wednesday at CFE Arena against an athletic and long Florida State team, UCF was hoping to record another impressive in-state victory. Unfortunately for the Knights turnovers hampered their showing and the Seminoles pulled away for an 80-68 win.
The Knights (1-1) committed 20 turnovers and allowed the Seminoles, who improved to 2-0, to shoot 50.0 percent from the floor.
The game was played in front of 9,343 fans, the fourth-largest crowd in UCF history.
Florida State led 38-33 at the break and used a 17-4 run midway through the second half to create separation from the Knights. The Florida State bench accounted for 33 points, with reserve Ian Miller totaling a game-high 18 points.
Calvin Newell and Kasey Wilson both scored 15 points for the Knights and Isaiah Sykes added 13 points.
The Seminoles shot 51.9 percent after the break. Montay Brandon capped the 17-4 run with 10:01 left to play with a layup that gave Florida State a 62-45 edge. UCF got no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
"I thought we had a chance," UCF head coach Donnie Jones said of his team entering the second half. "Sykes had two fouls, and that hurt our momentum a little bit. He had to sit out eight minutes in the first half. I thought we got into halftime, down five, we were right where we needed to be. I thought in the second half we would calm down a little bit more and get into executing, but we didn't do a very good job with that. We got caught up in trying to do too much."
UCF and Florida State were meeting for the 10th time, but the contest was the first series matchup on the UCF campus.
UCF got within nine points with 1:56 left to play when Wilson nailed a 3-pointer, but Miller responded for Florida State with a jumper.
"I thought we played a little too selfish and had too many turnovers," Wilson said. "I don't think you can win many basketball games doing that."
The Knights shot 39.7 percent overall. Eugene McCrory led the hosts with nine boards.
Jones said that his team will learn from the contest against the Seminoles, who return four starters from last year's squad that participated in the postseason NIT.
"We played this game so we would get battle-tested a little bit. We will take this and learn from it. This team is going to grow," he said. "I like our basketball team. I like our kids. We have some really good pieces and we will get better."
The Knights will return to action Sunday, hosting Bethune-Cookman at 2 p.m.