FORT WORTH, TX — The UCF men’s basketball team (15-14 overall, 6-12 Big 12) was topped by TCU (16-13, 9-9) on the road at Schollmaier Arena, 89-78, Saturday afternoon.
The first half was controlled by TCU. The Horned Frogs scored the first seven points of the contest and built a 23-8 lead, forcing UCF to burn a timeout. Mikey Williams and Darius Johnson nailed a trio of “3’s” to cut the deficit to 25-17.
From there, however, TCU pieced together an 18-3 run, pulling in front 43-20 and 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 33-20 run, including a 9-0 surge, to draw the game back within 10 at 63-53 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 (88-73) with 1:19 to go.
Moustapha 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. Keyshawn 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.
Darius Johnson also earned a milestone. With his team-high 20 points, he now sits among the top 10 scorers in UCF history with 1,389 points.
Mikey Williams continued to make an impression with 11 points, four assists and two blocked shots and Nils Machowski came off the bench to score nine points, making 4-of-5 attempts from the floor.
Up Next:
UCF will play its final home game tonight (Wednesday), hosting Oklahoma State at Addition Financial Arena for Senior Knight at 7 p.m. The Knights will close out the Regular Season on Saturday at West Virginia at 5 p.m. Both games will be streamed by ESPN+.
Here is the box score:
TCU 89, UCF 78
UCF (15-14, 6-12)
Darius Johnson 7-16 5-6 20, Keyshawn Hall 3-17 8-8 14, Mikey Williams 4-7 0-0 11, Moustapha Thiam 4-9 2-4 10, Tyler Hendricks 1-4 0-0 2, Nils Machowski 4-5 0-0 9, Jordan Ivy-Curry 2-6 0-0 6, Dallan “Deebo” Coleman 1-5 1-2 3, Dior Johnson 1-3 0-0 3, JJ Taylor 0-0 0-0 0. Totals _ 27-72 16-20 78.
TCU (16-13, 9-9)
Vasean Allette 6-14 4-4 17, Ernest Udeh Jr. 6-6 4-7 16, David Punch 6-7 1-2 14, Jace Posey 4-8 2-6 10, Noah Reynolds 3-10 0-0 9, Micah Robinson 5-9 1-1 12, Trazarien White 2-10 5-8 9, Malick Diallo 1-2 0-0 2, Brendan Wenzel 0-3 0-0 0. Totals _ 33-69 17-28 89.
Halftime _ TCU 49, UCF 30. 3-point field goals _ UCF 8-28 (M. Williams 3-5, Ivy-Curry 2-4, Da. Johnson 1-5, Machowski 1-2, Di. Johnson 1-1, Coleman 0-4, Thiam 0-3, Hendricks 0-3, Hall 0-1); TCU 6-21 (Reynolds 3-8, Allette 1-3, Robinson 1-2, Punch 1-1, White 0-4, Wenzel 0-2, Posey 0-1). Team fouls _ UCF 17; TCU 18. Fouled out _ none. Technical fouls _ none. Rebounds _ UCF 42 (Hall 13, Thiam 10, Hendricks 5); TCU 49 (Udeh 11, Punch 8, Allette 7, Posey, Robinson 5 each). Turnovers _ UCF 11; TCU 10. Assists _ UCF 14 (Da. Johnson, M. Williams 4 each, Hall, Hendricks 2 each); TCU 17 (Allette 9, Reynolds 3, White 2). Steals _ UCF 6 (Da. Johnson, Machowski, Hall, M. Williams, Thiam, Hendricks); TCU 6 (Allette, Udeh, Punch, Posey, Reynolds, Wenzel). Blocked shots _ UCF 5 (Thiam 3, Hall 2); TCU 10 (Diallo 4, Punch 3, Udeh 2).
