This afternoon, Wes Miller and the Bearcats (15-8, 6-4 AAC) welcome in the University of Central Florida Knights (13-8, 4-5 AAC) to fifth Third Arena for an afternoon showdown. The Knights entered this one on a four-game losing skid, while the Bearcats on the other hand are coming off a huge 81-55 victory over Tulsa on Wednesday night.
The Knights are led by Johnny Dawkins who is in his 7th season as head coach of the University of Central Florida. The Bearcats lead the all-time series 13-5 although the Knights took the last matchup 75-61 back on February 23rd, 2022. The Knights are without 7’0″ forward Michael Durr, who has missed the Knights last five games due to a hand injury. The Bearcats know the task at hand as they are looking to pick up a huge quadrant two win, which would be crucial this late in the season, as Wes Miller and the Bearcats look to make a run late in the season.
The Bearcats would get the ball rolling early after two straight turnovers by the Knights resulted in a quick 5-0 lead after a wide open three by Landers Nolley. The Bearcats were locked in on the defensive end early as they led the Knights 8-5 with 13:33 remaining in the first half. All eight, were points off turnovers, led by Landers Nolley who had six of those eight points for the Bearcats. The Knights were honing in on the defensive end as they were really using their length to their advantage and forcing the Bearcats to run late in the shot clock, as Taylor Hendricks length was causing a lot of problems for the Bearcats early.
The Bearcats really turned it up a notch after three straight UCF offensive fouls, after Ody Oguama and Jeremiah Davenport both took charges on the defensive end. Just like that, that would spark a 10-point run that forced Johnny Dawkins to call a timeout as the Bearcats jumped out to a 20-12 lead following a DeJulius made three-point basket. The Bearcats forced the Knights to 12 early turnovers in as many minutes after Rob Phinisee comes in and records three quick steals to set up a sequence of dunks from Davenport and Lakhin to make this a 24-12 game with just under six minutes left in the first half, and man was Fifth Third rocking after that sequence.
“Rob is the definition of a Bearcat,” said Bearcats head coach Wes Miller. Miller emphasized this stretch of play from Phinisee after the game and gave a lot of praise to the graduate point guard. “We were frustrated when Rob, and John Newman went down with injuries, and I think people can now see why there was that frustration. He is reliable, He has been in some big-time games and moments. You can see the defensive effort, I thought he had a huge impact today”.
The Bearcats would take a huge 31-20 lead heading into the break after that 14-0 run propelled the Bearcats momentum. The Bearcats were absolutely locked in on defense as they recorded ten steals in the first half, yes ten. The Bearcats forced the Knights to 15 turnovers, resulting in 18 points a huge statistic as the Bearcats were just picking the Knights pockets left and right it seemed. The Bearcats were locked in and the Rutkus was bringing the energy. David DeJulius set the tone on the defensive end and wasn’t making it easy for the Knights. DeJulius, has been one of the top defenders in all of the American, and has continued to prove that today. The Bearcats were led by Landers Nolley who had 10 first half points, while David DeJulius scored eight. However, the defensive aspect of this game has been electric to watch as the Bearcats were making it extremely difficult for the Knights to find any momentum on the offensive end.
