SUNRISE, Fla. – A host of Knights shone bright in south Florida on Saturday afternoon as the UCF men’s basketball team topped former conference-mate Tulsa 88-75 at the AutoNation Orange Bowl Basketball Classic to improve to 8-2 on the campaign.
Dallan 'Deebo' Coleman was dubbed as the game’s MVP, scoring a season-high 20 points and tying a career-high in rebounds with nine while collecting a pair of steals and assists. Moustapha Thiam chimed in with another tremendous performance, scoring a career-best 14 points while tallying five blocks with eight rebounds and three assists; it was his third game of the season and second straight with five or more rejections. Keyshawn Hall contributed 14 points as well, while Jordan Ivy-Curry sunk a quartet of triples to the tune of 16 points.
Darius Johnson, who’s graduation happened to fall on gameday, opened the scoring with a three-pointer. The Knights continued to set the pace of play in the first, taking care of business on the offensive end, but saw Tulsa answer nearly every trip down the floor in a first half that saw both sides shoot 50% or better. UCF was unable to build a lead bigger than four throughout the first 11 minutes, but never trailed over that span.
The Golden Hurricane took its first lead of the contest 8:38 into the first half at 24-22. Ivy-Curry answered immediately with a two-point basket, only to see it answered again by Tulsa. UCF strung together an 8-0 run, with five points from Benny Williams and a Coleman three-pointer, to pull ahead 32-26 with 4:41 remaining. The Golden Hurricane responded in a big way, piecing together a 12-0 run over the next 1:55 of action to build their biggest lead of the game, forcing UCF to burn a timeout.
Ivy-Curry took it upon himself to answer Tulsa’s run, swishing two three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, erasing the enemy’s six-point edge in the blink of an eye. The momentum continued as Dior Johnson tossed in a tough layup, followed by a Coleman triple to cap an 11-0 UCF run, putting the Black in Gold back on top 43-38. One free throw the way of Tulsa and two for the Knights in the final 14 seconds sent UCF into halftime with a 45-39 advantage. Thirteen of Ivy-Curry’s 16 points on the afternoon came in the first half.
The Knights scored the first two baskets of the second stanza, jumping in front by double digits for the first time in the contest. UCF continued to try to push the lead higher, going up 12 over the first 5:06 of the half. Tulsa continued to be pesky, piecing together a 5-0 run to draw back within seven at 58-51 with 14:04 left to play. The Golden Hurricane missed 10 of their first 13 shots in the second half, trailing by nine with 10:25 to go.
Tulsa did their best to creep back into the contest, slicing the UCF lead down to just two points with 5:55 to play. A Thiam slam and a pair of free throws from Hall pushed the lead back up to six at 74-68 with 4:05 remaining. A jumper from the paint for Tulsa was followed by five consecutive points for the Knights, building the lead back up to nine. A Darius layup followed by another Ivy-Curry triple ballooned UCF’s lead back to a dozen with just under a minute to play, all but sealing the deal in an 88-75 final.
Thiam’s five blocks give him 25 rejections on the campaign, which is close to Tacko Fall’s 26 through 10 games during his 2015-16 rookie season. Fall set UCF’s rookie record for blocks in a season with 70, a record that could be challenged by the fellow Dakar, Senegal native a decade later. Thiam has been dialed in over the last three contests, averaging 11.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 4.7 blocks per game, all while shooting 48.1% from the floor. Ivy-Cury is leading all UCF scorers over the last trio of games, averaging 14.0 points while shooting 45% (9-for-20) from the three-point arc.
.@Tafzo327Thiam 😳 pic.twitter.com/n3gIxLpk0o
— UCF Men’s Hoops 🌴 (@UCF_MBB) December 14, 2024
The Knights coughed up just five turnovers in the contest, their lowest total of the season after turning the rock over a season-high 17 times their last time out. After shooting exactly 50% in the first half, the Black and Gold finished the contest shooting 46.3% from the field, their third-highest clip of the season. UCF’s 19 assists were the second-best mark on the campaign, second to only the 20 it tallied against Florida Atlantic.
The result events the Knights’ all-time record against Tulsa at 15 apiece after ripping off eight wins in the last 10 meetings between the two sides. Saturday’s contest was the first time the two former conference foes had met on a neutral court.
With the MVP nod, Coleman joins Marcus Jordan as Knights to win the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic honor. Jordan had 23 points in an 84-78 comeback effort against Miami on Dec. 18, 2010, a win that was later vacated due to NCAA sanctions. UCF’s 88 points on Saturday tie for the sixth-most in Orange Bowl history. The 19 assists were three away from setting the Classic’s record, tying for fifth in the process. Thiam’s five blocks joined five others to reach the same mark to tie for fourth in the game’s history and was the most since Florida State’s Boris Bojanovsky had seven in 2013.
UP NEXT
The Knights will play their final non-conference game of the season and final home game of the calendar year, hosting Jacksonville on Dec. 21 for a 6 p.m. tipoff on ESPN+. UCF will open its Big 12 Conference schedule with a trip to Lubbock, Texas to take on Texas Tech on New Year’s Eve at 2 p.m. ET.
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