WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. – The UCF men’s basketball team fell in a marathon of a triple-overtime contest by a final of 109-102 to LSU in the third-place game at the Greenbrier Tip-Off.
“It was a hard-fought game,” said head coach Johnny Dawkins. “Both teams played their hearts out. I thought it was a tale of two halves, with us jumping out to the lead in the first half, and give them credit, they battled back in the second. It was a tough game, hate to fall short. Unfortunately, we came out on the short end tonight.”
LSU scored the first seven points of the contest before UCF found its way to the scoreboard with a Keyshawn Hall basket. A pair of Tigers free throws put them back up by seven, but a layup by Moustapha Thiam and a pair of free throws by JJ Taylor made it a one possession game, keeping the Knights in it early. A pair of free throws by LSU put them back up by four with five minutes gone in the first.
It was all Knights the rest of the period as UCF ripped off a 31-12 run over the final 14:16 of the opening half. Thiam and Dior Johnson each got a bucket to level things at 13-13 before LSU pulled ahead briefly with a layup at the 12:13 mark. UCF’s defense locked down the Tigers for the next five minutes, opening the door for a 13-0 run. Johnson hit a pair of free throws, followed by a couple of Rokas Jocius makes. Benny Williams had a high-flying alley oop from Darius Johnson. Dallan ‘Deebo’ Coleman got in on the scoring with a jumper of his own before Darius drained his first triple of the contest, putting the Knights up 26-15. That was the first of three straight made triples for Darius.
UCF built a lead as big as 20 in the first half, leading 38-18 with 2:12 left on the clock. The Tigers responded with a quick 7-0 run, trimming the lead to 13 before Williams ended the half with a layup, making it 40-25 at the break.
The Knights held their large advantage through the first seven minutes of the second half, leading by 18 points at 52-34. The Tigers began to claw back from this point, going on a 7-0 run. A Williams dunk separated another five LSU points, pulling the gap to just eight halfway through the half. UCF responded with six straight points building the lead back up to 14 with four points from Darius and two from Hall.
The final eight minutes of regulation saw LSU complete its comeback, going on a 20-8 run down the stretch. It was anyone’s game in the final moments, but the Tigers sunk a pair of free throws with 22 seconds left to level the score at 70-70, forcing overtime.
Jordan Ivy-Curry got the Knights started in overtime with a second chance bucket and then drained a three-pointer on the next trip down the floor. Up three, UCF saw LSU score the next seven points to go up four. Darius sank a pair of free throws, only to be answered by an LSU dunk with 29 seconds to go in the first extra period at 81-77. Ivy-Curry came in clutch with another triple to trim the deficit to a single point. LSU made one of its two free throws at the other end, leaving the door open for the Knights. Hall made a pair of free throws with six seconds left after driving to the rim and drawing the foul, forcing a second overtime.
Ivy-Curry got the Knights started again in the second overtime segment, hitting a three to start the scoring in the frame. LSU answered the triple, only to see Ivy-Curry bang home another. The seesaw battle continued as the Tigers responded with a triple, locking the score at 88-88. An extra layup and free throw capped off a 6-0 LSU run, but the lead was erased after a Darus free-throw and a Hall lay in. With 35 seconds left, LSU tossed in a layup to go up by two at 93-91. With time dwindling away, the Knights continued to fight as Hall had another late-period layup to extend the game.
The Black and Gold never held a led in the third overtime, as LSU started with a 5-0 run while holding UCF scoreless for the first 2:38 of the period. The Knights clipped the deficit to two after a pair of Hall free throws and an additional one from Ivy-Curry, but LSU scored at a pace the Black and Gold couldn’t keep up with, falling 109-102.
“This is the reason you play in an event like this, to play against this type of competition, to kind of see where you are at this stage in the season” said Dawkins. “We learned that we can be pretty good. But we have to do some things right on the court, offensively and defensively, to get that done. We’ll grow in those areas based on the things we’ve seen and improve based on what we’ve seen in this tournament.”
A trio of Knights finished the 55-minute contest with 20 points, the second time this season the feat has been accomplished. It was the same three members of the Black and Gold as earlier this year against Florida Atlantic as Darius had 25 points, Hall compiled 21, and Ivy-Curry collected 20 in Sunday night’s loss. Of Ivy-Curry’s total points, 17 of them came across the three overtime segments while Johnson had 13 of his 25 in the second half.
The contest was UCF’s first overtime game since its last in-season tournament against Charlotte, a 74-71 victory on Nov. 20 to win the Jacksonville Classic. The last multiple overtime game was on Jan. 11, 2023, a 107-104 thriller that saw UCF top Memphis in double overtime. Sunday’s loss was UCF’s sixth three overtime game in program history and the first since Jan. 14, 2015, a 103-100 victory in Orlando. The Knights are now 3-3 in triple overtime all-time and have never played a quadruple overtime game.
UCF now has a pair of 100-point outings this season. The last time that was done in a single season was during the 2001-02 season when the Knights scored 101 against Florida A&M on Dec. 8, 2001, and then 100 in the team’s next game against Chicago State on Dec. 13. Both were done in regulation and in UCF victories.
UP NEXT
The Knights return home for a contest against Milwaukee on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tipoff on ESPN+. UCF boasts a seven-game regular season home winning streak against non-conference foes.