ORLANDO – All three Knight seniors scored above their season average and the UCF men's basketball team put up a season-high 94 points in a 94-62 blowout of visiting East Carolina on Sunday's Senior Day at Addition Financial Arena.
"We talked about wanting to have momentum going into the tournament," UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. "I thought our guys provided that for us. Everyone pitched in. It was a good team win."
After being honored prior to tipoff, seniors Matt Milon, Dazon Ingram and Frank Bertz did damage early and often to help lead the Knights (16-14, 7-11) to their most dominant win of the season and their largest margin of victory since defeating SMU 95-48 on Feb. 24, 2019.
Milon opened up the scoring on UCF's first possession of the game with a 3-pointer, Ingram knocked down a three just over six minutes into the game to give the Knights a 13-12 lead, and Bertz connected on a deep ball 54 seconds later to make it 17-12 and give UCF the advantage early on.
"Offensively things were clicking, shots were going in," Milon said. "I made my first shot, and everyone got involved. Collin (Smith) played like a man inside. It's what we've talked about all year, all the pieces coming together. It's good that it happened on senior night and our last home game of the year."
In the last regular season game of their careers, all three were integral in extending the Knights' lead to 20 points late in the first before taking a 47-29 advantage at the break. It marked the most points UCF has scored in the first half this season.
Unlike Wednesday night in a 61-58 victory over SMU, UCF did not let up on Sunday. The seniors continued to pour it on, using a 14-4 run to extend the lead to 30 points, at 80-50, when Milon hit one of his four 3-pointers on the day with 6:58 remaining.
Milon finished with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Ingram added 10 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, a blocked shot and a steal while defending The American's top scorer Jayden Gardner for much of the game. Bertz scored seven points, had four assists and snagged two steals in 16 minutes of action.
The 94 points were a season high and the most since those 95 against SMU last season. The Knights shot 54.1 percent from the field and 51.7 percent from beyond the arc, both second-best marks on the season.
UCF's 15 made 3-pointers topped its previous season high of 12 – against both Tulsa and Tulane – and the Knights' 24 assists were five more than their previous best this season, 19 in a win over Charleston on Dec. 1.
The seniors played one of their best games of the season in their final showing at Addition Financial Arena, but so did freshman Darin Green Jr.
Green scored 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from long distance. The young sharpshooter was just three points shy of his season high and added a UCF record in the process. He has now made 68 threes this season, the most by a UCF freshman, topping Eric Riggs' record of 67 set during the 1995-96 season.
"We just have to keep playing with the same energy," Green said. "It's good momentum going into the tournament with two wins. We just have to keep bringing it and playing the right way and good things will happen."
Collin Smith added 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and took two charges in the win, increasing his team-leading season total to 30 charges drawn.
Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia also had a solid outing off the bench, scoring six points on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting from the field, grabbed five rebounds, had two assists and one steal.
Nearly everyone on the roster got in on the action, including sophomore walk-on Ryan Anders, who came off the bench for the final two minutes, grabbed a rebound and knocked down the first 3-pointer of his career.
The Knights earned the eight seed in next week's 2020 Air Force Reserve American Men's Basketball Championship with the win and will play South Florida on Thursday in the first round. The Knights and the Bulls are scheduled to tip off at 1 p.m. ET from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas with coverage on ESPNU and FM 96.9 The Game.
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