GREENVILLE, N.C. – In college basketball, you want to be playing your best in March. After a short-handed 64-60 road victory at East Carolina on Thursday, the UCF men's basketball team has now won four in a row and six of its last eight games.
At least from a consistency standpoint, this version of the Knights, seems to be playing its best basketball at the right time.
With two starters unavailable in C.J. Walker still out with an ankle injury and Brandon Mahan missing the game due to personal reasons, the Knights used a balanced attack on offense and clamped down on defense to win their 11th straight game over the Pirates.
"I'm just really proud of our guys," UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. "We talked about next man up, who was going to step up, knowing that we had lost two starters, and I thought everyone did. I thought it was a really good team win. That's what you want to see."
The Knights (10-11, 8-10) were clicking from the jump, scoring the first eight points of the game, and extending their lead to 13 points twice, at 18-5 and 24-11, before ECU made its run to get back into it.
ECU (8-9, 2-9) used a 9-0 run to cut UCF's lead to just four points and never allowed the Knights to increase its lead back to double digits the rest of the way.
Freshman Isaiah Adams and sophomore Darin Green Jr. were huge in the first half, each scoring 11 points in the first 20 minutes to give the Knights a 36-28 lead at the break. UCF held ECU to just 25.9 percent shooting from the field in the first, taking advantage of the Pirates' first game back after a pause due to COVID-19.
After the 8-minute media timeout in the second half, ECU made a push with a 6-0 run that cut the Knight advantage to just two points, at 57-55 with 5:20 to play, when Tremont Robinson-White connected on back-to-back buckets.
A layup by freshman Jamille Reynolds put the Knights back up by four with 2:44 to play and then a 3-pointer from Green on UCF's next possession made it a 7-point advantage with 2:20 on the clock and the Knights held on for the 64-60 victory.
"That was a huge shot for us," Dawkins said of Green's 3-pointer. "It was one of those (moments) when you just trust your team. We had a chance to pull it out, run some clock, execute, and run something, but I saw Darin running loose in transition. I didn't think (ECU) saw him, so instead of me stopping them and calling something, I let the play go. He came up with a big shot for us."
Adams finished with a team-high 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc, six rebounds, and three assists. Green had 14 on four made 3-pointers and a trio of steals.
Senior Darius Perry added 14 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for the second double-double of his career, but the first of the points-and-rebounds variety. The point guard also added five assists and three steals in the victory.
Senior Avery Diggs scored in double figures for the first time this season, finishing with 10 points on a perfect 4-for-4 night from the field and 2-for-2 from the line, while adding a season-high five boards.
For the game, UCF held ECU to 34.5 percent shooting from the field and outscored the Pirates 26-12 in the paint.
With the victory, the Knights secured the sixth seed in next week's American Athletic Conference Championship. Their first-round matchup will be with the Pirates, who are now locked in as the 11th seed.
The first-round game on Thursday, March 11 is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT with coverage from Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on ESPNU and FM 96.9 The Game.
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