Jan. 17, 2015
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By Dan Forcella
UCFKnights.com
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UCFKnights.com) - The UCF men's basketball team gave up 60 second half points and fell on the road at Memphis by a score of 99-79 Saturday at the FedEx Forum. Junior Daiquan Walker led the Knights with 18 points in the defeat.
"It was toughness," UCF head coach Donnie Jones said after the game. "We just didn't play with enough toughness today. Give Memphis credit. They came in, and they've been playing better and better, and their athletes just played much more physical and beat us on the glass. Rebounding is just effort, and tonight I didn't think we did a great job at all of competing for balls. Second shots really beat us."
The Knights (9-8, 2-4), who came in last in the American Athletic Conference with a -1.6 rebounding margin, were beat 53-24 on the glass Sunday. Memphis, in fact, finished with more offensive rebounds - 25 - than UCF had total rebounds - 24.
The 25 offensive rebounds were both the most that UCF has allowed this season and the most that Memphis has recorded. The Tigers (11-6, 4-2) turned their 25 offensive boards into 26 second chance points.
"Justin was in there for the most part," Jones said of sophomore Justin McBride. "He got us nine points and nine rebounds, and I thought defensively he competed. But other than that we didn't have anybody in the frontcourt to just rebound the ball. It made it very hard for us."
McBride was the only UCF player to finish the day with more than three rebounds, collecting at team high nine. The big man also added nine points on 3-of-5 shooting and blocked two shots in 17 minutes of action.
"I think it always plays a little bit of a factor," Jones said of the quick turnaround following Wednesday's triple overtime win over Tulane. "We have young guys who don't understand how to put back-to-back games together. I thought the hardest thing for us is that we couldn't get ourselves back in the game because we kept letting runs happen."
The Tigers used their speed and athleticism to get out and run. Memphis was able to get out and score easy buckets, holding a 24-10 advantage in fast break points. It was not due to a large amount of UCF turnovers, however, as the Knights turned it over only 12 times and actually led 21-18 in points off of turnovers.
UCF was never able to get on track offensively as the Memphis defense forced the Knights into difficult shots possession after possession. UCF was able to stay in the game by getting to the free throw line, taking 33 shots from the charity stripe.
"Well I think defensively they did a great job of defending our pick-and-rolls," Jones said. "They played very physical with our big guys, which made it hard. And we weren't able to get to the paint. I know we got fouled a lot, but we weren't able to get a lot of drives and kicks to get shots off. They made it difficult. They jammed up the paint very well tonight. Their length, their athleticism and their physicality really bothered our guys tonight."
The Knights finished the day 23-of-33 from the free throw line, led by a 13-of-15 effort from freshman B.J. Taylor. The point guard finished with 17 points to record his 11th game scoring in double figures.
Memphis was led by Shaq Goodwin and Nick King, who each scored 16 points. Goodwin recorded a double-double adding 10 rebounds. The Tigers' Trahson Burrell also had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
UCF will look to rebound with a road contest at UConn Jan. 22. The Knights and the Huskies square off at 7 p.m. from Storrs, Conn. on the CBS Sports Network.