• Final Stats

ORLANDO, Fla. – In the UCF Knights’ latest matchup, defense was the name of the game.

And if offense wasn’t already difficult enough to come by, the Knights’ struggles were magnified, as they met their defensive match in the No. 12 Cincinnati Bearcats. The Knights, however, saw the return of last year’s leading scorer, point guard B.J. Taylor, who was making his first appearance since fracturing his foot in the season-opener.

Despite Taylor’s return, UCF (12-6, 3-3 in American Athletic Conference) lost to the Bearcats (16-2, 5-0 in AAC) 49-38 Tuesday night at CFE Arena.

“I think when you insert new players at any time–we’ve had guys come in and out throughout the season, so it’s hard to get a consistent rhythm as a team,” Taylor said after the loss. “But we have good players in our locker room, good offensive players in our locker room. So, the offense is gonna come from us because teams don’t win in March from offense; they win from defense.

“So, as long as we keep our defense where it is, our offense is gonna get to where it needs to be.”

First Half

With UCF and the Bearcats each No. 3 and No. 7 in opposing field-goal percentage, respectively, their matchup was touted as a defensive one. That’s what it turned out to be in the first half, as both teams scored season-lows in the first half. The Knights scored 19, as the Bearcats had just 15.

UCF started with an 11-5 lead by the 12:28 mark. Taylor scored his first points off an and-1 layup. Dayon Griffin followed that with a 3 to extend UCF’s lead to 14-5.

That’s when the Bearcats went on their deficit-slashing run. Led by Gary Clark, Cincinnati went on an 8-0 run to cut UCF’s lead to one. It started with a Clark layup and ended with a 3 by Clark.

Only Taylor and Clark made field goals the rest of the first half, as Taylor hit a jumper and another and-1 layup. Griffin made a free throw for UCF, as Clark ended the first half with a dunk.

“I didn’t expect quite that [halftime score],” Knights head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the loss. “But both teams do hang their hat on that end of the floor, and I think both teams are trying to build their programs–well, they’ve built their program off of that… You know, we’re looking to build our program off of something similar to that here.

“So I was proud of our guys’ effort, you know, in the first half, especially. To hold any team to 15 points, you have to be doing something right. And for them holding a team [to] 19, you have to be doing something right.”

• UCF and Cincinnati each scored first-half season-lows, as the Knights scored 19, and Cincinnati scored 15.
• The Knights went 7-for-31 from the field (22.6 percent), and Cincinnati shot 6-for-26 (23.1 percent).
• Taylor led the Knights in scoring with 6 points on 3-for-5 shooting; Clark led Cincinnati with game-highs in points (7) and rebounds (9).
• Both the Knights and the Bearcats each had 5 turnovers.

HALFTIME: UCF 19, No. 12 Cincinnati 15

Second Half

After shooting just 23.1 percent in the first half, Cincinnati closed the game shooting 46.4 percent. The Bearcats shot just 6-for-26 from the field in the first but finished the game 13-for-28, including 3-for-12 from 3-point range and 5-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Cincinnati scored a chunk of their 34 second-half points by way of effort plays. After grabbing just 3 offensive boards in the first, the Bearcats snagged an additional 8 in the second half, helping them to 16 total second-chance points.

“We knew it was gonna be a war on the boards. I mean, I think Clark had, what, 15 rebounds?” Dawkins said. “I mean, I don’t know how many offensive, but I’m sure it was a number of those. And that gives them the extra possessions. And that’s what they feed off of; that’s one of their strengths. Not only guys that can really score the basketball, but they rebound the basketball as good as any team in the country.

“And so you have that combination of being able to have scorers out there but can still go get multiple possessions is definitely a strength.”

UCF grew its second-half lead to as large as five points early in the second half off a Djordjije Mumin 3, but Cincinnati controlled the rest of the game. Point guard Terrell Allen’s jumper tied the game at 30-30 with 12:46 to play, but that was when the Bearcats went on an 8-0 run to solidify their win.

Center Tacko Fall, who was 0-for-1 with 1 point in the first half, led the Knights’ second-half comeback effort. Trailing 38-30, Fall scored UCF’s next six points off an alley-oop from Allen and two more inside looks.

The Bearcats closed the game with a 10-2 run.

• The Knights and the Bearcats both improved their shooting in the second half, as UCF shot 42.1 percent, and Cincinnati shot 46.4 percent.
• UCF nearly tripled its turnovers total in the second half, giving the ball up nine times in the final period alone.
• Cincinnati’s Clark finished the game with game-highs in points (17) and rebounds (15).
• No Knight finished with double-digit points, as Fall, Allen and Griffin each scored a team-high 7 points.
• In his first game since the season-opener, Taylor played 21 minutes, scoring 6 points on 3-for-7 shooting, including 0-for-2 from the free-throw line; he also had an assist and a rebound.

FINAL: No. 12 Cincinnati 49, UCF 38

Who’s Next?

The Knights will travel to face the USF Bulls on Saturday at 6 p.m.

For more on the Knights, as thy continue into their American Athletic Conference schedule, follow Victor Tan on Twitter at @NDR_VictorTan.