Men's Hoops Advances to Crown Semifinal with 88-80 Win Over CincinnatiMen's Hoops Advances to Crown Semifinal with 88-80 Win Over Cincinnati

Men's Hoops Advances to Crown Semifinal with 88-80 Win Over Cincinnati

by Ken Landis
Box Score

LAS VEGAS – A brilliant display from senior Darius Johnson lifted UCF to an 88-80 victory over longtime foe Cincinnati in the College Basketball Crown quarterfinals. Johnson was lighting up the scoreboard like the slot machines on the Las Vegas strip, scoring 31 points with five made triples to send the Knights to Saturday’s semifinal.

“My teammates trusted me. They found me early on for some good shot attempts…one of our biggest things this year has been maintaining and building leads, I feel like tonight we did a great job of that. We led for 33 minutes, even when it got close, we got stops when we needed to and we executed offensively. We made a lot of connecting plays.”

Darius JohnsonUCF Guard

Johnson’s name was called early and often, a bit of foreshadowing for the home stretch of Thursday night’s game, scoring UCF’s first eight points and scoring the lone two makes for nearly the first four minutes of the contest. A layup, followed by his signature high-arching three point shot put UCF up 5-0 before Cincinnati hit its first triple with 16:09 showing on the game clock. Johnson swished in another triple, starting the game three-of-four from the field including a perfect two-of-two from deep. The Knights held an 8-3 lead at the first media timeout while limiting Cincinnati to one-for-six from the field.

After Moustapha Thiam bullied his way to the rim for a 10-3 lead. Five straight Cincinnati points closed the gap, one that didn’t expand above five the rest of the half. The Bearcats climbed to their first lead of the game with 6:39 left in the first half with a driving dunk, jumping on top 25-24.

Dwon 32-30, UCF posted a 6-0 run to pull back in front for the remainder of the half. Tyler Hendricks got the stretch going with a quick jumper before Dallan ‘Deebo’ Coleman and Johnson added layups for the 36-32 lead. A Cincinnati triple with 77 seconds left in the first was its final points of the first. Jordan Ivy-Curry added a pair of free throws for the Knights before the halftime buzzer sounded, taking a 38-35 lead into the locker room.

Cincinnati set the tone to start the second half, scoring six of the first nine points of the frame, tying things at 41. The Bearcats popped back in front briefly from a triple at 46-44 only to UCF roar out to a 10-0 run. Machowski buried a triple to get things going, followed by a Johnson fastbreak and Benny Williams layup. A display of perfect passing after collecting an offensive rebound led to an opening for Machowski who drove backdoor on the baseline, collecting a feed from Williams and tossing it in for the 54-46 lead.

The Bearcats didn’t go quietly, piecing together a 6-0 run to draw back to within two. Hendricks had an answer though, hitting a step-back, corner triple to extend the lead back to five. Cincinnati continued to scratch back, scoring eight of the next nine points to take a 60-58 lead. Thiam responded with his lone triple of the game, putting UCF back in front.

Tied at 67 all, Williams provided enough electricity on a monster putback dunk to power the entire Vegas strip for a night.

Johnson earned himself a new nickname in his 123rd collegiate contest, as Gus Johnson who was on the call for a national audience on FS1, dubbed him “the moon man” for his skyscraping triples that were beginning to leave craters in Cincinnati’s hopes of continuing in the Crown. A layup from Thiam to put UCF in front for good with 4:34 to play yielded to the senior star who began to put the game out of sight. Darius dropped in a high-flying triple to put the Knights up 74-70 before popping in another jumper with 3:11 to play to put UCF up half a dozen. One more star-grazing three-pointer completed the Black and Gold’s second 10-0 run of the half and ballooned the lead to nine, the highest mark of the game.

Cincinnati tried to claw their way back into the game, but to no avail as the Knights posted an 88-80 victory over the Bearcats, snapping a five-game skid to their conference foe.

Darius finished the night with 31 points, his fourth career 30+ point game and second of the season. A season-high 11 of his 23 shot attempts went down, five of which were three pointers while adding seven assists and two steals. A trio of Knights joined Darius in double-digit points, with Hendricks tallying 14, Thiam recording 13 and Machowski posting 11.

UCF buried another 10 three pointers, doing so in both games in Las Vegas. It’s the 15th time this season the Knights have hit double-digit threes, including doing so in five of the last six contests. The Black and Gold broke the single-season record for three-pointers in a campaign their last time out, adding to the total.

UP NEXT
The Knights advance to the College Basketball Crown semifinal where they will face Villanova on Saturday, April 5 at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on FOX. It will be just the third all-time meeting between the two teams. The winner will face either Nebraska or Boise State on Sunday, April 6 at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT.

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