Knights make it five consecutive wins, down Houston 74-63

Although the Knights (13-3, 3-0) shot inefficiently from the perimeter (three-for-21) and the free throw line (seven-for-16), their ability to attack the paint and a cranked up defense helped them seal their third consecutive conference play victory against the Houston Cougars (9-7, 1-2) at home Wednesday night, 74-63.

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"I thought we really executed our game plan to defend them." Coach Shawn Finney said. "We really wanted attack the offensive glass and came up with seven offensive rebounds. ... It was a great team effort. We shared the basketball."

Four Knights scored in double digits Wednesday night.

 With Dwight McCombs ineligible to play for UCF, the frontcourt has now opened up more playing time for others, including junior center Josh Crittle. He gave the team an extra lift offensively in the post and with his midrange game, going five-for-eight from the field.

"All of these guys are great passers," Crittle said. "You tend to have to have your hands ready to score and ready to make a play when they pass it to you."

Sophomore guard Isaiah Sykes led all scorers with a game-high 21 points and pummeled his way inside to grab 11 offensive rebounds (14 boards total). He was one of two Knights who pulled in a double-double for the game.

"Sykes was the man tonight with those 11 offensive rebounds." Finney said.

"That's one of the things we focus on in practice [is to get rebounds]..." Crittle said. "We learned how to rebound off each other."

Another unsung hero for the Knights was junior forward Keith Clanton who tallied in 18 points and rebounded the ball 13 times. Clanton went zero-of-four from the free-throw line, an area that Clanton has had troubles in throughout the season.

The Houston Cougars kept fighting back for a lead coming into half time, they were only down 3 points to start the second half, but the Knights got stops and pushed the offensive tempo to open up the game. UCF used a 7-1 run during the first five minutes of the second half to create some distance.

There were moments when the announced crowd of 7,862 erupted because of Rompza's on the ball defense; he managed to steal the ball four times throughout the game, two of which led to Sykes dunking on his opponents on back-to-back possessions. Rompza dished out five assists in the game and did not commit a single turnover.

"The crowd was unbelievable," Sykes said. "It felt like one of the first conference games with the crowd backing us. It was just exciting to see and it gave us energy today."

Even Crittle was startled from the crowd's reaction after Sykes' second dunk, one that two Houston defenders could not prevent.

"It shocked me," Crittle said. "I didn't even know he had it in him. It really got me going. I took that as energy [trying] to get everybody involved. That's excitement we need...we've got the best fans in the world."

The Knights will continue conference play on the road in a sold-out game against Marshall on Saturday at 7 p.m.