FORT WORTH, Texas – The UCF men's basketball team is set for its final American Athletic Conference Championship tournament prior to its departure for the Big 12 next season. The seventh-seeded Knights begin their run in the first round against 10th-seeded SMU for a 2:30 p.m. ET tip on Thursday inside Dickies Arena. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPNU.
The Black and Gold ended the regular season on a high note, coasting to an 84-58 victory over ECU, securing the season sweep of the Pirates. Four Knights finished in double figures in points, with Taylor Hendricks leading the way with 25, tying a career high. Ithiel Horton finished the contest with 19, C.J. Kelly had 12 and Darius Johnson had 10. Kelly's 12 points got him to exactly 1,000 career points, as he entered the contest with a total of 988.
The Knights faced SMU just once this season, beating them to the tune of an 85-53 victory. However, the Mustang were missing their leading scorer, Zhuric Phelps, who averages 17.3 points per game and has accumulated a total of 65 steals. Zach Nutall and Efe Odigie are also double-digit scorers for SMU, posting 13.2 and 11.4 points per game, respectively. The Mustangs finished the year with a 10-21 record and a 5-13 mark in conference play.
The winner of Thursday's contest advances to play second seeded Memphis on Friday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. UCF has never faced a No. 2 seed as part of The American. However, the Knights have squared off against Memphis in the quarterfinals the past two seasons and a total of four times in previous nine seasons as part of the league.
The Knights have never won the conference tournament title or reached the championship game in their ninth year in The American. UCF has made it as far as the semifinals, beating Memphis in the quarterfinals to reach the semis in 2017, which helped the Knights in getting a berth into the NIT that season.
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