ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team led 28-24 at halftime but couldn't hang on as visiting Memphis came back to defeat the Knights by a score of 59-57 in an American Athletic Conference contest Wednesday night at Addition Financial Arena.
UCF (11-9, 2-6) took the advantage at the break after holding Memphis (15-5, 4-3) to just 32.3 percent shooting from the field in the first 20 minutes of action. The Knights forced eight first-half turnovers by the Tigers, which they turned into a 7-0 advantage in points off giveaways.
Potential first-round NBA Draft pick Precious Achiuwa was held to just five points on 2-of-9 shooting in the first half, but Boogie Ellis picked up the slack, leading the Tigers with 10 points on a pair of makes beyond the arc.
For UCF it was Collin Smith leading the way. His 10 points and five rebounds gave the Knights the lead at the break. The big man had just one personal foul in the first 20 minutes of play.
Memphis' Lance Thomas made one of his four 3-pointers in the game to give the Tigers' their first lead of the second half at 33-32 just four minutes into the frame.
After a brief counter by the Knights, Memphis regained the lead for the final time on a layup by Lester Quinones with 9:39 to play.
UCF continued to battle, but Achiuwa and Thomas were too much. The former finished with 18 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, with three blocked shots. The latter, who came in having made just one 3-pointer on the season, finished 4-of-6 from long distance with a game-best 20 points.
The Tigers shot 58.3 percent from the field as a team in the second half and were 3-of-6 from long range. UCF, meanwhile, went 4-of-15 from beyond the arc in the game.
Smith and Ceasar DeJesus led the Knights with 13 points each, but Smith was hampered by second-half foul trouble yet again, totaling four for the game. He added 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season.
UCF will now hit the road again for the second edition of the War On I-4 for 2020. The Knights battle South Florida Saturday at 4 p.m. from Tampa with coverage on ESPNU and FM 96.9 The Game.
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