ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) - The UCF men's basketball team came back from down 11 points in the second half, but couldn't rally past visiting Missouri, falling to the Tigers 62-59 Thursday night at CFE Arena.
"It was a real tough physical ballgame," UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said. "I thought our guys responded well. I thought our guys were able to match their physicality and able to compete well."
The Knights (4-3), coming off of back-to-back losses for the first time since early February of last season, started hot in front of the home crowd. UCF scored the first four points of the game and led by as many as eight twice in the first half, but Missouri fought back.
The Tigers (6-2) used a 15-2 run in over five minutes of action to take a 27-21 lead late in the first half. Kassius Robertson connected on 3-of-5 from beyond the arc to lead Missouri with 11 points at the break.
"Their three-point shooting from their perimeters guys was really outstanding and that gave them the edge they needed down the stretch," Dawkins said. "Their guys made some tough shots and that's what you have to do to win a game like this."
UCF took care of the ball much better than it had in its previous two games, only recording 13 turnovers for the game. The Knights used that to their advantage early in the second half, giving it up just twice in the first eight minutes as they cut the deficit from eight to two when Chad Brown scored four straight points.
Back-to-back buckets in the paint from big man Jeremiah Tilmon and two of the Tigers' eight three-pointers balloon Mizzou's lead back up to 11 points with just 9:56 to play.
The Knights battled back though. After a timeout, Dayon Griffin hit one of his two from beyond the arc to ignite an 11-2 UCF spurt, capped by an A.J. Davis three-point play that made it 54-52 with only 2:32 left on the clock.
Yet another Missouri triple halted the Knights' run, this one from Terrence Phillips, and UCF failed to get closer than two points the rest of the way.
UCF, was unable to shut the Tigers down defensively, allowing Mizzou to shoot 45.5 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from three-point range. The Knights, however, were better than they had been of late offensively. UCF shot 44.2 percent from the floor and made six three-pointers.
UCF outrebounded the Tigers 34-31, but only turned them over nine times in the game.
Davis, who played for Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin as a freshman at Tennessee, led UCF with 14 points and nine rebounds. It was the first time all season he failed to record double digit rebounds.
Tacko Fall added 12 points and six rebounds, going 6-of-7 from the floor, Terrell Allen had nine points, and Dayon Griffin recorded eight points, four boards and four assists.
"We have to keep grinding, keep fighting," Dawkins said. "I mean three straight losses against three really good basketball teams. We do a few different things right and two of the three games could have gone the other way for us."
UCF will look to end its current three-game skid on Sunday when the Knights take on Alabama at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.
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