Rompza key in conference win

It wasn't glamorous, but the Knights got the job done at home Saturday with a 62-54 against Tulane.

The win got the Knights (12-12, 4-6 in C-USA) back to .500 after they had lost six of their previous eight Conference USA contests.

Tulane has dropped 10 of its last 12.

The Knights found themselves down by eight points with 9:43 to play, but responded by owning the next six and a half minutes as they reeled off a 13-1 run, capped by a 3-pointer from Isaac Sosa, who had 13 points in the game.

"We were really struggling, obviously, from a offensive standpoint, and yet we just found a way," UCF head coach Kirk Speraw said. "It wasn't obviously very pretty, but we gutted it out defensively, we got some stops and turnovers and then we came back."

A.J. Rompza gave UCF its first lead of the second half when he knocked down a huge 3-pointer during that stretch to put the Knights up 49-48 with 3:51 left, and later added another 3-pointer to put the Knights up by seven at 59-52 with 27 seconds left. Rompza led the Knights with 17 points, nine of which came in the last four minutes of the game

"I think that first 3 was probably bigger than the second one just because we didn't have a lot going for us," said Rompza, who also chipped in four assists. "We were getting stops, but we weren't scoring on offense. It was big for us because it brought us back into it."

Kendall Timmons put up 12 points to lead the Green Wave (7-17, 2-9 in C-USA), who were playing without leading scorer Kris Richard for the second consecutive game, as he sat out with an ankle injury.

UCF and Tulane went into the half tied at 30 after a tightly called first half that featured 21 combined fouls and 22 more in the second.

After the break, the Knights scored 11 points through the first 10 minutes of action and went through one stretch where they failed to score on 14 of 15 possessions.

But they dug deep and mustered a game-changing 13-1 run before ending with 19 of the game's final 24 points.

"It's not a good thing," Rompza said about the team's slow start in the second half. "But a lot of times we haven't been able to fight back, but today we showed different."

Tulane didn't help its cause with 13 second-half turnovers and missed free throws late (making just nine of 19 for the game), despite leading for much of the contest and having success in the paint against the Knights.

 Thirty-six of the Green Wave's 54 points came from close to the basket.

"We had to do something to stop them from getting to the front of the rim,'' said Speraw of switching up his defense to slow Tulane from getting to the basket. "I think they scored four of the first five possessions of the second half, and all of them were right there at the front of the rim. So we had to do something. That at least made them think about what they were doing, and maybe it changed their tempo enough."

Though the Knights have struggled of late, Rompza feels the team is starting to turn a corner and is finally starting to gel.

"I think with our team, we know that we're getting better,'' Rompza said. "We're more of a team now. There are going to be times that we struggle, but I feel a lot better about our team now. We're starting to get into a groove with each other and it shows.''