FORT WORTH—Memphis might have thought it would see the same UCF team the Tigers defeated handily twice in three nights in Memphis in February—or even the Knight team that fell behind multiple times by 15 points early on Friday night in its 2021 American Athletic Conference Championship quarterfinal at Dickies Arena.
The second half certainly changed that notion—and the eventual 70-62 victory by Memphis barely spoke to the valiant effort by Johnny Dawkins' Knights.
"Both teams put it all out there on the floor. I was proud of my guys' effort. Their guys came up with some great plays late in the game. They won a hard-fought game. I'm disappointed we can't continue to play," said Dawkins. "The effort was there, the energy was there--we just didn't make all the plays we needed to make."
UCF gave Memphis all it could handle, leading 54-53 at the 5:29 mark on an Isaiah Adams lap-up. That came not long after Darius Perry put on an amazing shooting exhibition—knocking down a trio of three-pointers in a 1:41 span, the last of which gave UCF its first lead at 52-51 at the 7:52 mark.
But out of the final media timeout with the contest tied, Memphis took control, scoring the next six points--and in the process holding the Knights without a field goal for more than five minutes.
"Even being down the way we were we fought," said Adams. "We just didn't handle their aggressiveness well in the beginning."
Perry paced the sixth-seeded Knights with 15 points. Adams had 13 points and senior Brandon Mahan 11. Dre Fuller Jr. had 11 rebounds for the Knights who prospered in great part due to only four second-half turnovers.
UCF, 11-12 overall and 8-10 in American Athletic Conference play, won five of its last six games. Until Friday night the Knights had not been defeated since a Feb.14 road loss at Cincinnati.
Third-seeded Memphis (16-7 overall, 11-4 AAC) defeated UCF for the third time in 2020-21—after two Tiger wins in Memphis Feb. 1 and 3. The Tigers won seven of their last eight and 10 of its last 12—with four COVID postponements in the middle.
Both teams used impressive scoring runs and defense on the way to a 32-28 Memphis halftime lead. The Tigers' 11-0 run started a half in which Memphis posted leads of 13-2, 18-4 and 25-10. Along the way UCF missed 10 of 11 shots over one stretch and had been forced into 10 turnovers midway through the period. Then the Knights' 9-0 run cut the lead to 25-19 as Memphis missed 10 of 12 shots.
After the Tigers led 30-19 with 3:16 left, UCF embarked on another 9-0 run to pull within two. The teams' respective leading scorers—UCF's Perry and Memphis' Landers Nolley II—combined for two first-half points (a basket by Nolley II) on one-of-12 shooting.
