SUNRISE — 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 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise 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, whose 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 then 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 and did its best to creep back into the contest, slicing the UCF lead down to just two points (70-68) 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 Johnson 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.
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.
Up Next:
The Knights will play their final non-conference game of the season and final home game of the calendar year at Addition Financial Arena, hosting Jacksonville on Saturday for a 6 p.m. tipoff. The game will follow a the UCF women’s Big 12 opening game against TCU at 2 p.m. Both games will be streamed on on ESPN+.
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Follow UCF men’s basketball on X (@UCF_MBB), Instagram (@UCF.MBB) and Facebook (/UCFMensBasketball).
Here’s the box score:
UCF 88, Tulsa 75
Tulsa (4-7)
Keaston Willis 7-13 2-2 22, Dwon Odom 7-14 6-7 20, Braeden Carrington 1-4 3-4 6, Tyshawn Archie 2-10 1-3 6, Ian Smikle 1-4 1-4 3, Matthew Reed 3-6 3-3 10, Justin Amadi 3-5 2-3 8, Jesaiah McWright 0-0 0-0 0, Jaye Nash 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Behrend 0-1 0-0 0. Totals _ 24-57 18-26 75.
UCF (8-2)
Dallan "Deebo" Coleman 6-8 6-6 20, Jordan Ivy-Curry 6-12 0-0 16, Keyshawn Hall 5-11 4-5 14, Moustapha Thiam 5-11 4-7 14, Darius Johnson 3-14 2-2 9, Benny Williams 3-5 0-2 7, Dior Johnson 1-2 2-2 4, Rokas Jocius 2-3 0-0 4, Tyler Hendricks 0-1 0-0 0, Nils Machowski 0-0 0-0 0. Totals _ 31-67 18-24 88.
Halftime _ UCF 45, Tulsa 39. 3-point field goals _ Tulsa 9-21 (Willis 6-9, Carrington 1-4, Archie 1-4, Reed 1-3, Odom 0-1); UCF 8-22 (Ivy-Curry 4-7, Coleman 2-3, Da. Johnson 1-5, Williams 1-1, Hall 0-2, Hendricks 0-1, Thiam 0-1, Di. Johnson 0-1, Jocius 0-1). Team fouls _ Tulsa 19; UCF 20. Fouled out _ Tulsa (Smikle). Technical fouls _ none. Rebounds _ Tulsa 33 (Carrington 6, Willis, Smikle, Reed 5 each); UCF 37 (Coleman 9, Thiam 8, Hall 6). Turnovers _ Tulsa 11; UCF 5. Assists _ Tulsa 17 (Odom 7, Archie 4); UCF 19 (Ivy-Curry 4, Hall, Thiam, Da. Johnson 3 each). Steals _ Tulsa 4 (Archie 2); UCF 5 (Coleman 2). Blocked shots _ Tulsa 2 (Odom, Carrington); UCF 7 (Thiam 5).
