 "Photo: Steve Coleman/Asscoaited Press")
The Knights dropped their second consecutive game on Saturday, falling 86-69 to the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss.
Seven minutes into the second half, UCF (14-2, 1-2) was up by four, 51-47. Despite the lead, the Knights allowed the Golden Eagles (14-3, 3-1) to go on a remarkable 21-2 run midway through the second half. The scoring run, which lasted roughly four minutes, took what had been a back-and-forth game with nine first-half lead changes and turned it into a complete thrashing.
"It is not a one-game season," said head coach Donnie Jones in a release. "We are going to have to regroup and find our identity here. We have made strides [compared to last year], but we are finding out when we walk into places that people are playing us at a high level. This team is not used to playing at that next level that you need to play at."
The Knights have found a knack for executing Jones' adjustments on the fly, a quality which greatly enabled them to start the season 14-0. In last week's loss to Houston and Saturday's loss to Southern Miss, that has not been the case.
It was the Golden Eagles, instead, who were able to make key adjustments. Southern Miss scored 50 second-half points and shot 62 percent. R.L. Horton led Southern Miss with 18. Gary Flowers added 16 points and eight rebounds.
Marcus Jordan led UCF with 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting, and looked impressive in the first half. Keith Clanton followed with 14 points and seven rebounds. No one else had double figures for the Knights, although Isaac Sosa came close with nine points.
UCF will have three days to regroup before playing East Carolina on Wednesday at the UCF Arena. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.
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