Despite one of the better individual performances of the season provided by Isaiah Sykes, and a valiant second-half team effort, UCF was unable to top Conference USA leader Southern Miss Saturday as the Golden Eagles held on for a 78-74 win at Reed Green Coliseum. Sykes scored a career-high 27 points and had 10 rebounds and UCF overcame a 10-point halftime deficit before falling.<\/p>\n
Southern Miss (21-4, 8-2 C-USA) led 37-27 at the half, but UCF (18-7, 7-4) used a 9-0 run to midway through the second half to get back into the game. The Knights got a big triple from Tristan Spurlock during the spurt and then took a 52-51 lead with 7:58 to play when A.J. Rompza nailed a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
Southern Miss countered with nine-straight points from Jonathan Mills and the hosts built their edge to 60-55 with 5:28 to go in the contest when Mills hit a jumper. The Knights continued to battle, and got within two points with a minute remaining after two free throws from Marcus Jordan, but Southern Miss hit 11 free throws in the final minute. After Jordan’s free throws, Spurlock fouled Neil Watson on a drive, and the Golden Eagle guard knocked down both foul shots. Southern Miss shot 29-of-37 (78.4 percent) from the line for the game, compared to 12-of-22 (54.5 percent) for the Knights.<\/p>\n
“It is tough to get down on the road,” UCF head coach Donnie Jones said. “We didn’t quit and battled back. You can’t miss free throws on the road. Every point matters.”<\/p>\n
The Golden Eagles are receiving votes in both national polls and improved to 11-0 at home with the win.<\/p>\n
One of the most improved players in the conference, Sykes shot 11-of-14 overall Saturday. Sykes kept the Knights close throughout much of the first half, when he scored 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting. After the Golden Eagles went up 19-10 with 10:26 to go, Sykes scored three-straight baskets to cut the hosts’ edge to six points. Southern Miss then used a 3-pointer from LaShay Page to spark a 13-6 run to close the half.<\/p>\n
“We’re really proud of Isaiah, he gave us everything he had,” Jones said.<\/p>\n
UCF started the second half in strong fashion, getting within three points with 14:11 to play after Spurlock hit a 3-pointer. Southern Miss then responded with an 8-3 run that included a pair of dunks from Torye Pelham.<\/p>\n
Jordan finished with 12 points for UCF and Rompza and Kasey Wilson both totaled nine points. A freshman, Wilson played well late in the game and scored all of his points after intermission.<\/p>\n
Four Southern Miss players finished with double figures in scoring, led by Mills with 18 points. He shot 12-of-13 at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
UCF shot 59.3 percent from the floor in the second half and 52.7 percent for the game.<\/p>\n
UCF will not play again until next Saturday when the Knights host East Carolina at 7 p.m. at the UCF Arena.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite one of the better individual performances of the season provided by Isaiah Sykes, and a valiant second-half team effort, UCF was unable to top Conference USA leader Southern Miss Saturday as the Golden Eagles held on for a 78-74 win at Reed Green Coliseum. Sykes scored a career-high 27 points and had 10 rebounds and UCF overcame a 10-point…","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":26599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[149,423,1392,2362,2603,2957,4789],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-32839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-aj-rompza","tag-basketball","tag-donnie-jones","tag-isaiah-sykes","tag-kasey-wilson","tag-marcus-jordan","tag-tristan-spurlock"],"yoast_head":"\n