• Final stats

ORLANDO, Fla. – B.J. Taylor and A.J. Davis combined for 54 points and almost propelled the UCF Knights to the upset of the season on Thursday night, taking the No. 11 Wichita State Shockers to overtime.

The Knights (17-12, 8-9 in American Athletic Conference) fell 75-71 to the Shockers (24-5, 14-3 in AAC) at CFE Arena in front of a crowd of 5,930.

“We learned a lot about ourselves in this game,” UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. “We’ve been battling adversity a lot, as you guys know, and we’re battling it now.

“I thought the way our guys responded coming off a tough game at Temple [University] and two tough road games—they responded with a winning effort. I thought they played winning basketball.”

With 17 seconds left in the game and the Shockers due for a free throw with a three-point lead, it looked like the game was over. Wichita State’s Markis McDuffie missed his lone free throw that would have made it a two-possession game with less than half a possession to go, and the Knights had one final chance to tie it down 66-63.

“If we make a free throw there, we win the game,” Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall said after the game. “I had my really good free throw shooter in, Markis McDuffie, and I guess he just left it short.”

Then, Taylor sent up a 3, but it was off-target. The ball rolled around the court until Davis finally got a hold of it and banked a game-tying 3 with less than a second remaining.

“It just kind of bounced around, and I was able to get it and square up to the basket and get a good look off,” Davis said after the loss. “I wanted to make sure it got there, and it just kind of banked in and fell. Whatever you want to call that—luck or skill, whatever.”

The Knights weren’t able to take advantage of their momentum going into overtime, though, as they scored just five points in the five minutes of extra time. Neither team scored until Shockers center Shaquille Morris muscled in a layup with 2:27 remaining.

Dayon Griffin responded with a 3 assisted by Taylor to take a one-point lead, but UCF’s narrow advantage was short-lived. Conner Frankamp drained a jumper to take a one-point lead for the Shockers, and Davis missed a layup and back-to-back free throws, as Wichita State claimed a five-point lead with 20 seconds to go. Taylor scored UCF’s final bucket, a layup, with 12 seconds left.

“I definitely think we had momentum going into overtime,” Davis said. “It just came down to a couple plays that we didn’t make and they made.”

The Shockers started the game with three consecutive 3-pointers. The Knights, on the other hand, started with a travel by Davis, a foul by Chad Brown and a shot-clock violation in three out of their first four possessions.

UCF was able to take its first lead of the night with a little less than 15 minutes remaining in the first half. Davis drove to the basket, weaving through defenders for an acrobatic layup, giving the Knights a 12-11 lead with his fourth and fifth points of the game.

That was part of a 14-0 run by the Knights, as Taylor, Davis and center Rokas Ulvydas made five-straight buckets for the eventual 11-point lead. Taylor and Davis combined for 21 of the Knights’ 29 first-half points.

“We switched to zone because we couldn’t stop them in man-to-man,” Marshall said. “They had seven, eight, nine possessions in a row where they scored. I told them, ‘In 20 years, I don’t remember one of my teams being that anemic on the defensive end for a stretch,’ but we were.”

Wichita State responded with a run of its own, scoring eight-straight to make it a 22-19 game. The Shockers continued to outscore UCF for the remainder of the half, holding the Knights to nine points in the remaining 10 minutes of the opening period.

UCF reclaimed its lead three minutes into the second half when Davis stole the ball and sprinted down the sideline, slamming it home. This started a sequence of high-energy plays that had the crowd buzzing. Brown followed Davis’ dunk with one of his own on UCF’s next possession. Then, another Davis steal led to a 3-pointer by Taylor to put the Knights up by five with 15:46 remaining in the game.

The Shockers clawed back and took the lead when Frankamp scored six points in less than 90 seconds to complete an 8-0 run with just over 10 minutes to play. When the Shockers eventually stretched their lead to nine, Taylor, once again, stepped up, nailing a three to make it 64-58 with 3:54 remaining.

“I think basketball is a game of runs,” Davis said. “The basketball gods always balance out games, and any good game you watch is gonna be a game of runs.”

Davis brought the Knights within one with 1:09 remaining. After a high pass to Taylor was bobbled and almost lost out of bounds, Taylor found a wide-open Davis, who hit his fifth of six 3-pointers for the night.

“A.J. has always been one of my best friends on the team, one of my closest friends,” Taylor said after the game. “Every team, you love everybody, but you always have two or three guys you’re closest with, and, since I’ve been here, [Davis] has always been my go-to guy, both on and off the court.

“I didn’t know when I first came here in 2014 that—I knew we were gonna be teammates—but I gained a real brother for life with him.”

Who’s Next?

The Knights finish their regular season at home Sunday at 4:30 p.m. against Tulane University. Tulane will travel to CFE Arena with a record of 14-15, 5-12 in the AAC.

For more on the Knights, as they look to end their regular season with a win, follow Tommy Cardinal on Twitter at @NDR_TomCardinal.