March 13, 2014
Box Score | Quotes | Notes
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Andy Seeley
UCFKnights.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UCFKnights.com) -- A strategic move from the bench and tough, gritty play had the Knights right where they wanted to be in Thursday night's American Athletic Conference Championship quarterfinal. But it just wasn't quite enough for No. 9 seed UCF, as it fell to No. 1 seed Cincinnati, 61-58 at the FedEx Forum.
UCF (13-18) trailed 45-35 midway through the second half. But Knights' head coach Donnie Jones went to a box-and-one defense on Cincinnati's leading scorer Sean Kilpatrick. At that point in the game, Kilpatrick had 16 of the Bearcats' 45 points. The defensive change slowed Cincinnati (27-5) and allowed the Knights to cut into their deficit.
By the 8:45 mark, UCF trimmed its deficit to two, 45-43 with an 8-0 run. From there, the Knights continued to hang around. Cincinnati pushed the lead out to five points, with five minutes remaining. But the Bearcats couldn't put the Knights away.
"I thought it was very effective, we were trying to force other guys to make plays for them just to get them out of rhythm," Jones said of the defensive strategy. "They're such a rhythm team and obviously Sean Kilpatrick is the focal point. We limited him, I don't think he got a field goal during that stretch until the end ... he made four free throws. I thought we did a good job of changing their flow, which is what we wanted to do."
Isaiah Sykes, who matched Kilpatrick for game-high honors with 21 points, scored the next five points. He hit a couple free throws and then converted a three-point play with 2:55 remaining, tying the game at 53-53.
UCF tallied defensive stop at the other end and had a chance to take the lead. But a Kasey Wilson 3-pointer was just off the mark. Sykes pulled down the offensive rebound, but then turned it over. Cincinnati's Justin Jackson scored to put the Bearcats up 55-53 with just less than two minutes remaining.
The Knights had another golden opportunity with about 1:30 left. Freshman Justin McBride drew a flagrant foul and went to the free-throw line with a chance to tie it, plus UCF would retain possession after the free throws. He missed both and Wilson missed another good look at a triple that could have given UCF the lead.
One minute later, Kevin Johnson hit the dagger for Cincinnati. With 36 seconds remaining, he buried a three-pointer from the right corner to give the Bearcats a five-point lead. Kilpatrick hit three of four from the line over the final 15 seconds to ice the victory for Cincinnati.
It was the final collegiate game for UCF seniors Sykes, Calvin Newell, Tristan Spurlock and Isaac Lang. Newell added 10 points to go with Sykes' 21-point effort, while junior Wilson also tacked on 11.
"Great game, proud of these seniors that represented us here at UCF," Jones said. "These guys came so far. We may have lost on the scoreboard but those guys had a victory here today with the way they competed in this tournament and at the end of the year. I'm proud of those guys laying this foundation for us making this move in this conference this year and I'm proud of how we competed."
Sykes left the game in the final minute with a right knee injury. He will be evaluated further when the team returns to Orlando.