ORLANDO – The UCF men's basketball team benefited from, quite literally, last-second heroics from sophomore guard Darius Johnson, but a handful of missed opportunities and a defensive lapse in overtime cost the Knights on Saturday afternoon, as UCF saw its losing streak hit four in its 77-70 defeat to Temple at Addition Financial Arena on Saturday afternoon.
After his team built a lead as great as 10 points during the first 20 minutes of play, watched as it slipped away and fought its way back, Johnson was fouled on his layup try with the Knights trailing 62-60 and 2.4 seconds to play.
As quick as a hopeful buzz among the crowd quickly departed with Johnson's first miss from the line, it returned with his subsequent intentional miss and drawn foul with one second to play, awarding the sophomore a much-needed second chance.
He was perfect in his next two attempts, tying the game at 62 and forcing an extra five minutes for a Knights squad hungry for a win. The UCF faithful cheered again when Johnson opened overtime with the team's fifth triple of the game, but the Owls yielded just five more points the remainder of the contest, dashing the Knights' comeback bid and outscoring UCF 15-8 in overtime.
"Another hard-fought loss. Both teams played their hearts out, but I thought they out-executed us at the end and made the plays they needed to make," said head coach Johnny Dawkins. "We fought back, got into overtime, and we had a couple of opportunities with possession of the basketball, but we turned them over. We just have to execute better in those situations."
The heartbreaking defeat comes as the latest during the Knights' current rough stretch, on the heels of UCF's Wednesday hard-fought home loss to the No. 3 Houston Cougars. The contest also saw the Knights play their fifth overtime game, as well as seventh overtime period, of the season with nine regular-season games to play.
"We've been in so many overtime games, we already know what we're trying to do when we get into overtime. It's just unfortunate that it didn't work out for us. But I thought we gave ourselves a chance, Darius hits the three in the corner, and then both [ensuing] possessions we turned it [over.]"
Spearheaded by a gritty effort by Lahat Thioune in the paint, the Knights enjoyed a strong start, recording an early 8-6 advantage. The 6'10" forward notched six of UCF's first eight points under the basket around a Taylor Hendricks layup, and Ithiel Horton, in his first game since recording his 1,000th career point against Houston Wednesday evening, finished a layup at the rim after Temple tied the game at eight points apiece.
The Knights ran with their early offensive momentum, quickly opening up a 10-point advantage on the strength of a 16-6 run that began with Horton's drive to the rim.
The redshirt senior scored six straight points, including his first make from beyond the arc, following a Thierno Sylla layup, and Brandon Suggs followed a Hendricks put-back dunk with four more points that gave UCF a 24-14 edge with 7:54 to play in the half.
Redshirt sophomore Jayhlon Young found the scoresheet for the first time with a made free throw on the heels of an Owls 3-point shot, but the Knights' offensive fortunes were quickly stifled by the visitors down the stretch.
UCF was limited to just one field goal, a C.J. Kelly three-pointer, in the final 7:13 of the first half and went to the locker room looking up at a 36-29 deficit after fighting through a 19-5 Temple run.
The Knights thundered back with a 16-8 second-half-opening run, one that featured four points from Kelly, three-point shots from Suggs and Johnson, and two points from Thioune, who set a season-high with 13 points. The two teams traded blows through the middle minutes, including four key free throws from Suggs that gave UCF a 56-55 lead with 4:10 to play, before the crucial end-of-game sequence that forced the extra five minutes.
"It definitely hurts. I give all credit to Temple, they're a great team, they went on the road and beat Houston," Horton said. "But I think we're a great team too, and to let a game like that slip through our hands, we were up 10 in the first half, is definitely upsetting, disappointing. But it's just next play."
Four Knights reached double figures in scoring in the loss, led by 13 points from both Horton and Thioune. Suggs and Johnson both recorded 12 points, and Hendricks, despite failing to record a block for the first time in 14 games, notched double-digit rebounds for the fifth time this season with 11.
UP NEXT
The Knights will have a week to regroup before their next tilt, a road matchup at Cincinnati slated for 12 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
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