ORLANDO—The UCF men's basketball squad sported a roster Wednesday night that returned the top nine Knight scorers from a season ago.
Visiting Robert Morris, on the other hand, dressed that same number of new players in the season opener for both teams.
That experience advantage paid big dividends for UCF as it parlayed a hot early shooting touch and multiple first-half scoring runs into a 69-59 victory before 4,869 fans at Addition Financial Arena in the Knights' first outing of 2021-22.
"We got off to a good start, and that's what we were hoping to do," said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins.
UCF wasted no time establishing itself—allowing the first basket of the night to Robert Morris and then going on a 14-2 run while hitting four of its first six three-point attempts (two each by Darius Perry and Darin Green Jr.).
The Colonials came back with their own 7-0 run, hitting four straight shots to make it 18-16 for the Knights. But the home squad then knocked down five consecutive shots, fueling an 11-1 run to a 31-19 margin.
UCF connected on 53 percent of its first-half shot attempts (five of 13 from deep)—while its defensive pressure forced eight Robert Morris turnovers and limited the Colonials to 10-of-36 shooting (27.8 percent).
UCF's 17-point halftime advantage (42-25) might have been greater had it not been for the visitors' 25-16 rebounding edge, including 14 offensive rebounds. Perry hit five of his six shots for 13 points in the opening 20 minutes.
No Robert Morris starter had more than one first-half field goal—as that quintet combined to shoot four for 21 in that initial half.
The Colonials scored the first seven points of the second half and pulled within 46-37 but never got closer than that. As the visitors missed seven of eight shots, UCF built the lead back to 66-47 with three and a half minutes remaining. That was the last of four different 19-point leads (the largest of the night) for the home team.
"I do think we have to get better rebounding the ball—they got way too many offensive rebounds (17)," said Dawkins. "We've got work to do there.
"We want to play fast and be a tenacious defensive team. We showed in spurts we can do that well—we need to sustain it."
Perry led all scorers with 18 points, while Green had 14 and C.J. Walker 12. Walker also had eight rebounds and Perry four assists.
"Picking up where we left off last year was fun," said Walker, alluding to UCF's five straight wins in late February and early March of 2021.
"How good is that, to see C.J. come off the bench and make the plays he did? We have a versatile team—we view a number of our guys as starters," said Dawkins.
"We feed off each other's energy and our guys fed off the crowd. And there's no reason to pace ourselves with our depth."
Enoch Cheeks and Rasheem Dunn had a dozen points apiece for Robert Morris, while Kahliel Spear had 10. Cheeks led all rebounders with 10. The Colonials made only four of 23 attempts from long distance.
UCF's Cheikh Mbacke Diong, a grad transfer from UNLV (and Senegal), tied his career high with five blocked shots and contributed seven rebounds.
"He's been dynamic, and he's a heck of a leader," added Dawkins.
The victory marked the sixth straight for Dawkins in season openers with the Knights.
UCF (1-0) returns to action Saturday for its first road contest at Miami (2 p.m. EST on the ACC Network). The Knights' next home game is Tuesday versus Jacksonville (7 p.m. EST on ESPN+).
Robert Morris (0-1) plays Thursday night at Kentucky.
