FORT WORTH, Texas – The UCF men’s basketball team was topped by TCU on the road 89-78 Saturday afternoon.
The first half was controlled by TCU. The Horned Frogs scored the first seven points of the contest before Moustapha Thiam was found all alone in the paint by Darius Johnson pass 2:18 into the contest.
TCU went up 15-4 before Thiam caught an alley-oop to trim the early deficit back to single digits. The Horned Frogs kept up their electric pace to start, building a 23-8 lead, forcing UCF to burn a timeout. Mikey Williams nailed a triple right out of the break, which was answered by a TCU layup. Back-to-back triples from Williams and Johnson cut the deficit to 25-17.
From there, TCU pieced together an 18-3 run, pulling in front 43-20 thanks to a pair of three pointers and a handful of fastbreak points. The Horned Frogs carried that momentum into halftime as UCF trailed 49-30 after the first 20 minutes of play.
The Knights opened the second half with a lob to Thiam, trying to energize the Black and Gold into a comeback. The two sides traded buckets to start the frame, as UCF crawled back within 15 with 15 minutes to play.
The Knights put together a 9-0 surge to draw the game back within 10 at 63-53. The run started with a layup from Nils Machowski, followed by a tough lay in by Dallan ‘Deebo’ Coleman. The Knights got the ball out of the under 12-minute timeout and continued their run as Johnson drove the paint for another layup. Keyshawn Hall converted an and-one chance to make the deficit 10 with 9:31 to play.
Despite working its way back into the game, UCF saw TCU pull ahead by 18 with 6:18 remaining via a 10-2 run. The Knights continued to hang around, chopping it to 11 again before ultimately cutting it to a nine-point deficit after another tough drive from Johnson to make it 82-73 with just a tick under three minutes left.
A 6-0 run, all TCU free throws, put the game out of reach for the Knights with 1:19 to go, resulting in the 89-78 final.
Thiam gathered a pair of offensive rebounds late in the game, resulting in him tallying a second straight double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Hall also tallied a double-double, his third of the season and first of Big 12 play, scoring 14 points and hauling in 13 rebounds.
With three blocks in the contest, Thiam has tied UCF's single-season rookie blocks record with 70 on the campaign, tying Knights legend Tacko Fall who had 70 in 2015-16.
Johnson also earned a milestone with Saturday's contest. With his team-high 20 points on the night, he now sits among the top 10 scorers in UCF history with 1,389 points. Johnson passed D'Quarius Stewart (1996-2000) who previously sat in 10th place with 1,387.
In the earlier meeting between the two sides this season, the Knights earned their largest victory of the campaign, an 85-58 triumph. TCU shot just 1-for-20 from three-point range that night. Saturday afternoon saw the Horned Frogs bury their first three attempts from distance and finish the first half shooting 5-for-13 from beyond the arc. After building their 19-point edge at the break, TCU only made one more from long range, going 1-for-8 in the second.