MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A mountain of a 27-point deficit faced the UCF men’s basketball team as the first half wound down. As daunting as the hike seemed, the Knights showed relentless fight in the second half, scaling the proverbial mountain side in the Mountain State, pulling within three in the final moments of Saturday’s contest against West Virginia. Despite a mad dash to try and tie Division I’s biggest comeback of the season, the Knights fell short with a 72-65 result to round out the regular season.
“You can go one of two ways [when you’re down big at the half], you can fold or you can keep fighting. Our guys keep fighting. We talked about adjustments, but the main adjustment we had to make was to come out with the mindset that it was a 20-minute game and we had to fight on every possession. I thought our guys tried to do that.”
Johnny DawkinsUCF Men's Basketball Head CoachAfter missing the first four shots of the contest, the Knights got on the scoreboard with a Moustapha Thiam layup to trail 4-2. West Virginia’s Javon Small, who entered the day second in scoring in the Big 12, nailed a three-pointer to put his team up 9-2. A confident Darius Johnson answered back with a triple of his own from deep, making it 9-5 exactly four minutes in.
The Mountaineers built their lead on second chance points and threes, holding a 10-0 edge in second chance tallies and sunk five threes. West Virginia collected a pair of rebounds, leading to a triple on a third opportunity to go up 23-11 at 11:37 left in the first. That was part of an 8-0 run that put the Mountaineers up 25-11; Johnson snapped the run with a tough layup inside.
UCF had coughed up the ball six times by the 8:43 mark while West Virginia continued to build a steep lead. A chasedown block by Nils Machowski led to a quick JJ Taylor triple to cut the deficit to 13 at 29-16.
Another run, this time with nine consecutive points, put West Virginia up by 22 at 38-16 with 4:53 left in the first half.
Johnson led the Knights on the stat sheet through the first 20 minutes of play, posting 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting including three triples. The rest of the team combined for 10 points on 3-for-19 shooting while going 1-of-7 from deep. The deficit was 47-25 at the break, tying the fewest amount of points scored by the Knights in the first half this season. The Mountaineers had seven triples at the break, nearly hitting their season average of 8.6 in the first half.
West Virginia buried a triple to start the second half before the Knights pieced together a 7-0 run thanks to a three from Thiam and layups from Dallan ‘Deebo’ Coleman and Keyshawn Hall, making it 50-32 just over two minutes into the frame. UCF added two more points to the run before West Virginia cashing in on a three with 16:08 to play, putting the Mountaineers back in front 53-34.
The Knights chipped away at the deficit, coming back within 15 at 60-45 with 10:26 to play. UCF had forced six turnovers to that point in the second half after forcing just three in the entire first half.
The Black and Gold used another two points from JJ Taylor to draw back within 13, extending the run to 8-0. Another West Virginia turnover gave the ball back to UCF. As Johnson carried the ball up, he drew a contact technical, going to the charity stripe and cutting into the lead with two more, now just an 11-point deficit with 9:35 to play.
The Mountaineers added a bucket before the under-eight minute media timeout. Johnson swished in a high-arcing three, his fourth of the contest, to cut the deficit to 10 with 6:17 remaining. Two free throws for West Virginia were answered with a quick Thiam triple, bringing the game back within single digits. Taylor piled on another three, pulling UCF within six with the score reading 64-58.
The Mountaineers dialed up a long-range strike out of the UCF timeout that followed the Taylor make. Thiam answered with a pair of second-chance points, his final tallies of the night as he finished with 13.
It was UCF ball out of the under-four minute media timeout as Taylor was fouled going up for a dunk prior to the break. He nailed both from the free throw line, pulling UCF within five at 67-62. Trying to weather the UCF storm, West Virginia tried to bleed the clock as much as they could, but wound up missing a three and picking up a shot clock violation with 3:02 to play. The Knights came up empty on the ensuing possession, but turned the Mountaineers over for the 13th time of the second half, getting the ball back with 2:18 to go. Johnson made the most of the mishap, driving to the lane as he has so many times for a one-handed finish at the rim, pulling the Black and Gold within one possession at 67-64.
The peak of what was a mountain of a 27-point deficit was now in sight, as UCF’s defense had held West Virginia to just 20 second half points through the first 18 minutes of the final frame, allowing the Knights to march back.
The Black and Gold fouled one of West Virginia’s worst free throw shooters on the ensuing possession. It worked, as the Mountaineer clanked the first of his one-and-one chance. The home team was able to gather the rebound though, and West Virginia cashed in on the second-chance opportunity, banging in the 12th three pointer of the contest.
Still, UCF had its chances in the waning moments, as Johnson hit one-of-two free throws with 1:10 to play. West Virginia missed on a long-range attempt with 38 seconds left. Charging down the floor as an errant Johnson three was collected by Thiam, who also pulled and missed from three. A UCF foul sent West Virginia to the charity stripe, where another missed front end of a one-and-one gave the Knights a sliver of hope. A scramble for the rebound wound up in the Mountaineers’ mitts, sealing UCF’s hopes of tying the largest comeback in Division I this season.
Small, who entered the evening behind Hall for the Big 12’s scoring lead, had a chance to overthrow the Knights junior. An entire season of scoring came down to the charity stripe with a dozen ticks on the clock remaining in the regular season. Small hit both his free throws, tying Hall with 572 points on the campaign for a share of the Big 12’s regular season scoring title.
The Knights held West Virginia to 25 points in the second half, just as the Mountaineers did to UCF in the first. West Virginia shot just 29.2% from the field in the final frame, the lowest clip surrendered by the Black and Gold in the second half this season. The Mountaineers finished with a slightly better average overall on the evening with a 40.9% to 39% edge.
Johnson finished the contest with 27 points, his fourth straight 20+ point showing to wrap up the regular season. He snatched seven steals on the night, tying a career best. Sunday evening’s total got him to 73 steals on the campaign, which ties the UCF record for steals in a Division I season, drawing even with his own 73 swipes last season. The four-year Knight has set personal bests in nearly ever stat category possible this season, and if he hasn’t yet, he still has a chance to do so in postseason play.
UP NEXT
The loss means UCF will be the 14-seed at the Big 12 Conference Championship, playing eleventh seeded Utah. The Knights will hit the floor in Kansas City, Mo. in the T-Mobile Center on Tuesday, slotting into the final game of the night which is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. ET.