ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team (9-3, 1-1 AAC) makes its return to Addition Financial Arena for the first time since defeating Michigan on Dec. 30 as the Knights welcome conference foes Temple (7-6, 0-2 AAC) to town for a 7:00 p.m. game on Wednesday, Jan. 5.
The matchup will mark the second this season between the Knights and the Owls as they met three weeks ago in Philadelphia with UCF coming out on top 65-48 at the Liacouras Center in the conference opener for both programs.
Wednesday's rematch will air ESPN+ while Marc Daniels will be on the call on FM 96.9 The Game.
Before falling to SMU in their latest outing on Jan. 2, the Knights were red-hot in the month of December, defeating Bethune-Cookman (12/5), North Carolina A&T (12/11), Temple (12/15), North Alabama (12/22) and Michigan (12/30). Over that stretch, the black and gold outscored opponents 389-296 while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three-point range.
Over that same time, UCF was holding opponents to a 36.9 field goal percentage, including 27.6 percent from deep, and junior Darin Green Jr. led the team over the five-game streak with 17.0 points per game and was shooting 48.7 percent from three (19-of-39).
Temple, meanwhile, will look to bounce back from their last game where they fell to Houston, 66-61. The Owls are led by head coach Aaron McKie, who has his team off to a 7-6 start this season and has led Temple to a 26-34 record in his three years as head coach.
With star guard Khalif Battle sidelined for the season, the Owls are paced by 6-foot-5 guard Damian Dunn, who leads the team in scoring (13.6 ppg), rebounding (4.9 rpg), steals (16) and free throw percentage (47-56, .839).
Game Information
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 5
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN+
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game
ROUND TWO WITH TEMPLE
- The Knights got off to a great start in American Athletic Conference play on Dec. 15 after securing a 65-48 win over Temple in Philadelphia.
- UCF held Temple to 19 first half points, the least amount of points UCF has allowed to an opponent in the first half since holding SMU to 14 on March 4, 2020 before going on to win, 61-58.
- UCF outscored the Owls by 18 in the second half after shooting 65 percent from the field, compared to just 19 percent through the first 20 minutes.
- Three Knights posted double-digit scoring totals in the victory as Brandon Mahan (18), Darin Green Jr. (17) and Tyem Freeman (14) all had solid outings.
- Mahan's 18 were a season-high for the fifth-year senior. He was also a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.
- Freeman's 14 point scored marked a career-high for the first-year Knight, plus he added seven rebounds and three assists, also career-highs.
- With the win, UCF is now 4-2 all-time in league openers under head coach Johnny Dawkins.
DAWKINS ERA AT UCF
- Johnny Dawkins picked up career win No. 100 in the Knights' win over N.C. A&T on Dec. 11, becoming just the third coach in UCF history to reach the milestone.
- Dawkins is 103-63 since starting with the Knights in 2016, a win percentage of .622, the second best of any UCF coach (Torchy Clark, .754 from 1969-83).
- He has the third most wins over any UCF coach, trailing only Clark's 274 and Kirk Speraw's 247 from 1993-2010.
- Dawkins is the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in program history in the Division I era, needing only 162 games to do so.
- Dawkins had his squad off to a 4-0 start to begin the 2021-22 season, tying his 2017-18 mark for his best start to a season at UCF.
- Dawkins has led UCF to its first NIT Final Four (2017), first at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament (2019) and first NCAA Tournament win (2019).
- Prior to Dawkins' arrival at UCF, the program had won three games against ranked opponents from 1984-2016. Since Dawkins has taken over, the Knights have won five games against ranked opponents.
- UCF had never won two games against ranked teams in a single season, and the Knights did it in a span of five days, taking down No. 6 Houston and No. 19 Cincinnati late in the 2018-19 season.
- UCF is now 8-50 all-time against ranked opponents, but 5-16 against ranked teams under Dawkins.
WIN OVER THE WOLVERINES
- UCF capped off non-conference play with a bang on Dec. 30 as the Knights ran away with a second-half lead to fend off visiting Michigan 85-71.
- The Knights capitalized on the energy of 9,358 strong at Addition Financial Arena, the third largest crowd in UCF history, to secure the win over the Wolverines.
- The crowd also marked the most for UCF at a home game before January of any year.
- The win finalized UCF's non-conference record at 8-2 and marked the Knights' fifth straight win and first over the Wolverines.
- The Wolverines carried a 35-31 lead into halftime, and the deficit only grew for the Knights to kick off the second half as Michigan extended its lead to 12 just two minutes into the second half before the Kngihts called time to regroup.
- The stoppage worked as the black and gold went on an 18-2 run shortly after play resumed to take a 55-51 lead and they didn't look back.
- The Knights shot 72.0 percent from the floor and hit all eight of their three-point attempts in the second half to outscore the Wolverines 54-36 in the half and secure the victory.
- Darin Green Jr. poured in a career-high 27 points on a career-best seven made three-pointers.
- Meanwhile, Brandon Mahan had season highs of 26 points and five made threes to lead the way.
- The duo of Green and Mahan combined to go 12-of-16 from beyond the arc as they totaled 53 of the Knights' 85 total points.
DECEMBER STREAK
- UCF was riding high on a five-game winning streak after defeating Bethune-Cookman (12/5), North Carolina A&T (12/11), Temple (12/15), North Alabama (12/22) and Michigan (12/30) before their streak came to an end with a loss at SMU on Jan. 2.
- Over that stretch, the Knights outscored opponents 389-296 while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 37.7 percent from three-point range.
- The Knights held a +7.2-rebounding margin over opponents during their winning streak.
- Meanwhile, UCF was holding opponents to a 36.9 field goal percentage, including 27.6 percent from deep.
- Junior Darin Green Jr. led the team over the five-game streak with 17.0 points per game and was shooting 48.7 percent from three (19-of-39).
- Darius Perry was dishing the ball out with solid efficiency as he led the Knights with 29 assists over that stretch (5.8 per game).
MONEY AT THE LINE
- As a team, UCF has knocked down 78.2 percent of its free throw opportunities through the first 12 games of the season, which leads the conference and is 13th in the nation as of Jan. 4.
- The Knights' current single-season record for highest field goal percentage is 76.1 percent (1975-76).
- Before missing his first free throw of the year in the win over Michigan, fifth year senior Brandon Mahan had not missed a free throw dating back to 02/01/21 at Memphis (last 20 games).
- Mahan was a perfect 48-for-48 in free throw attempts over that stretch.
- Mahan currently leads the conference is in sixth in the country with a 93.9 mark on free throw attempts.
- Six Knights are shooting 75.0 percent or better from the line as of Dec. 22 (min. eight attempts).
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