The Knights' first ESPN appearance of the season didn't go as planned. Looking to remain unbeaten in conference, the Knights fell to SMU 70-63 in Dallas.
Coming into Sunday's match up, UCF had won 5 consecutive games, averaging 72.8 points per game during that stretch. SMU played strong defense on Sunday by holding UCF below their season average (70.1 points per game).
Only D'Nay Daniels, Chelsie Wiley and Jelisa Caldwell scored for the Knights (10-7, 3-1) during the first half as SMU (9-8, 2-2) built a big lead early and led 38-31 by the break.
The rest of the team finally got it going in the second, as Aisha Patrick scored all 12 of her points after halftime. Even with four Knights scoring in double figures, to only three for the Mustangs, the Knights could never take lead.
The Knights were out-hustled during the game, only recording three second-chance points and were out-rebounded 31-30. The Mustangs came out sluggish in the second half, not registering a field goal for the first seven minutes after the break, But the Knights could not capitalize as they never cut the deficit to less than two.
Overall, UCF shot 42 percent from the field, but SMU led wire-to-wire and ended UCF's unblemished record in conference play. The loss now puts UCF at 3-1 in conference play heading into Thursday's game against Memphis. On a positive note, with 17 points in Sunday's contest, Daniels is only 6 points away from reaching 1,000 points for her career.
The Knights travel to Memphis on Thursday to face the Tigers, who are right behind the Knights in conference standings. After Thursday's match up against the Tigers, the Knights will return home to the UCF Arena to face the Marshall Thundering Herd.
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