For the UCF Knights, every game has been different, but the story, at least lately, remains the same.
As the Knights lost to the Cincinnati Bearcats 69-51 on Tuesday night at CFE Arena, the theme of the Knights being a .500-type team with few offensive threats was affirmed again as they dropped to 11-11.
But most of all, the inconsistent and average play showed literally as it was a tale of two halves. The Knights only trailed by one point at halftime, but in the second half could only muster 21 points, failing to make a single free throw and being outscored 38-21 in the process.
“We got rattled in the second half for whatever reason,” head coach Donnie Jones said. “They continued to stay in a rhythm and had a lead that was hard to come back from.”
The Knights had a second half to forget, but one that is easy to remember if you have watched the team for the last month.
With 18 turnovers, 10 missed free throws and 16 offensive rebounds conceded, UCF was completely overmatched by Cincinnati in the second half.
In the first half, the Knights looked competent behind the hot shooting of junior guard Matt Williams and his career-high 24 points on 6-for-12 shooting from three, UCF was in a good position going into the break.
“My teammates know I can shoot and motivate me to not pass up shots,” Williams said. “A lot comes from confidence from my teammates and the rest of it is just preparation.”
Despite Williams’ 3-point exploits, UCF just could not find any other source of scoring. He and A.J. Davis combined for 28 of UCF’s 30 total first half points. But with early foul trouble from Justin McBride for a second straight game, UCF found it difficult to establish a threat inside on either end of the floor.
Tacko Fall has been a bright spot for the Knights of late and did lead the team in rebounds tonight with eight. But the freshman usually known for his timid demeanor committed a technical foul early in the second half and did not look as intimidating as he did against Temple and in other recent outings.
The Knights still look like a better team when he is on the floor, but again, he did not register enough minutes for it to really count, tallying only 20.
For Cincinnati, they had four players in double figures and per usual, played a balanced rotation with immense depth. Kevin Johnson led the Bearcats in scoring with 13 points and Farad Cobb, Gary Clark and Octavius Ellis scored 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.
UCF’s primary problem in this particular game was a lack of ball movement offensively and a reluctance to close out on Cincinnati threes, resulting in not only made baskets, but a slew of second-chance opportunities with little-to-no boxout attempts from the Knights from a rebounding perspective.
The Bearcats posted a 38.1 percent offensive rebound rate, meaning nearly two of every five misses were offensive rebounds.
It is hard to pinpoint a consistent theme for what is going wrong with UCF because it is just so many different things.
Turnovers, offensive rebounds, a lack of an interior presence and a scorer are all issues this Knights squad has had since the calendar year began and the conference schedule became the difficult grind that it is.
UCF will yet again play a team that it looks up to in the American Conference standings, but this time on the road as the team travels to Houston to take on the Cougars on Saturday.
UCF still has a chance to salvage something of this season with seven games remaining, but in terms of chances for signature wins, those chances seem to have come and gone. And before long, so will any chance at playing in any meaningful games the rest of the season.
