ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team used an impressive first-half performance and clutch plays down the stretch to withstand staggering second-half shooting numbers by Tulsa, defeating the Golden Hurricane 73-69 on Senior Knight at Addition Financial Arena.
The Knights (9-11, 7-10), winners of three in a row and four of their last five, held Tulsa to 30.4 percent shooting from the floor and turned the Hurricane over 12 times in the first 20 minutes to take a 37-21 lead at that half.
UCF ended the first on a 16-1 run and held Tulsa without a field goal for the final eight minutes and 52 seconds of the period.
Freshman Isaiah Adams sparked the run, scoring 10 of his game-high 19 points during the stretch, but one of the three seniors honored before the game, Avery Diggs, was equally impressive in putting the Knights out in front.
Averaging just 1.3 points in 7.6 minutes per game on the season, Diggs scored four points, had two assists, and drew a charge during the run. He finished the game with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out three assists in 24 minutes off the bench.
"Tulsa has a good team," UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. "They have a strong tradition, a great coach, and we knew they were going to continue to battle."
Things got dicey after the break.
Tulsa (10-11, 7-9) connected on 12 of their first 13 field goal attempts of the second half and erased the Knights' lead in just over eight minutes.
The Golden Hurricane extended its lead to six points, at 61-55, with 8:04 to play in the game, scoring 40 points in less than 12 minutes of second-half action.
The Knights didn't fold. Senior Brandon Mahan hit a long 2-pointer from the corner with the shot clock running down to stop the bleeding, but after Tulsa got its lead back to seven points, it was sophomore Darin Green Jr.'s turn to step up. He hit a 3-pointer with 5:24 to play to get UCF back within four points.
It was Green again with a three just over two minutes later to cut it within two, at 67-65, before senior Darius Perry put the Knights back in front with a conventional 3-point play with less than a minute to go.
Dre Fuller Jr. knocked down 4-of-4 free throw attempts down the stretch to secure the victory for the Knights, who swept Tulsa in the season series for the first time ever.
"I was proud of our guys for making stops when we needed to and making big plays offensively when we needed to," Dawkins said.
UCF is now just half of a game back of the Golden Hurricane for sixth place in the standings and can overtake Tulsa by percentage points with a win over ECU on Thursday.
"It's very important to win games like that," Dawkins said. "We've been in a lot of close games, so we're definitely used to being in these situations. The experience you get in those types of games, the better you are down the stretch of a season."
The Knights are scheduled to play the Pirates at 9 p.m. ET in Greenville with coverage on ESPNU and FM 96.9 The Game.
Adams finished with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 3-of-6 shooting from 3-point range, to go with three rebounds, a block and a steal. Perry and Green each had 14 points, while Diggs and Fuller chipped in with eight apiece.
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