Electric crowd watches Knights defeat Memphis

Nearly every seat at the UCF Arena was filled as an electrifying announced crowd of 8,734 came out to witness one of the biggest games of the season, as the Conference USA's defending champion-Memphis Tigers paid a visit on Wednesday night.

What they were treated to was a back-and-forth game that came down to the wire, as junior forward Keith Clanton displayed grit, converting a 3-point play with four seconds left in the game to help the UCF Knights (14-4, 4-1) win, 68-67, over the Tigers (12-6, 3-1).

Junior guard Marcus Jordan shed some light on the win.

"It was definitely a tough gritty Conference-USA game," Jordan said. "I think a lot of games in this league [are] going to be tough and we have just got to grind it out, find a way to win, [and] that's what we did tonight."

Thousands of students charged on the court after Memphis turned over their last possession with time expiring, following Clanton's game-winning free throw. In the excitement, senior point guard A.J. Rompza jumped onto the press box and screamed at the top of his lungs, with students continuing to pour from the stands.

"It was unreal," Clanton, who finished with 23 points, said. "We were happy to see our fans. … Everybody was just out there having fun. It was a good experience."

The scene that unfolded was also unexpected, as Jordan explains it.

"I didn't think it was going to happen," Jordan said. "It kind of caught me off guard and I saw everybody running, so I kind of got out the way. But it was cool to see everybody excited and supportive of us, so it's always a great feeling to have something like that happen."

Jordan finished with 20 points on the night.

UCF lost every contest against Memphis in previous years. Despite that, the team tried to treat the game like any other conference matchup.

"We just wanted to attack it as any game," Jordan said. "We didn't want to put [this game] on the pedestal, but we knew what it meant to the school and we just wanted to go out and leave everything on the court, and that's what we did.

Even though UCF won, Memphis still played well on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 51 percent from the floor as well as 64 percent on their 3-point shots.

Sophomore guard Will Barton, who happens to be C-USA's leading scorer, had an explosive first half pouring in 16 points. He carried the team's offense, but only managed to score eight more points in the

second half, finishing with 26.

"He's a great player," Jordan said. "He's definitely one of the top in the conference and took some tough shots. The whole team has a lot of great individual talent and we knew they were going to make tough

shots we just wanted to guard them the best we could [to] limit their tough shots."

UCF led at half time, 41-38. They built their lead from that point onwards and led by as many as 13 points. However, the Knights couldn't curtail Memphis' efficient shooting down the stretch and had their

lead picked apart. In fact, the lead changed 16 times all throughout the game.

Memphis outscored UCF in the second half, 29-27, so every possession counted.

Sophomore forward Tristan Spurlock also gave a good effort knocking down three of his seven 3-pointers to add to the team's offense.

The Knights will travel on a two-game road trip, starting against UAB this Saturday at 2 pm; Fox Sports Network will broadcast the game.