Record crowd watches Knights beat Southern Miss

Meeting up for the first time this season, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles entered the UCF Arena to take on the Knights on Sunday with a chance to end their 3-game skid. Each team possessing only six wins, the victor in this matchup would inch a game closer to getting back into conference contention.

            UCF (7-9, 2-2) played their way to a .500 win percentage in Conference USA and a 65-47 victory over the Golden Eagles (6-11, 0-4).

A record crowd of 2,178 fans came together to cheer on the Knights on UKNIGHT for Education day.

Getting into the groove of things and forgetting about the sloppy play that induced four jump balls early in the game, Aisha Patrick and Gevenia Carter caught fire. Before the half ended, Carter hit two shots from behind-the-arc as Patrick added four-points of her own. Andrea Hines sparked a pivotal 13-0 run, hitting the first three-pointer for the Knights allowing them to head into the locker room up 35-29 at halftime.

UCF's Sarah Green was the X-factor of the second-half able to effectively guard the Golden Eagles' Sedreka Plummer by notching two blocks, two steals and one rebound in 13 minutes. While Patrick and Carter were lighting up the scoreboard, Green quietly maintained the paint, making Southern Miss take lower percentage shots from the perimeter. Her defense played a big role in holding the Golden Eagles to 32.6 percent shooting.

Patrick and Carter, two guards with floor general mentalities, only sat a combined five minutes. They both played balanced basketball, contributing on each end.

Patrick ended the game with 19 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals while Carter added a career-best 23 points by utilizing every technique in the shot-takers manual.

What was most important from both of these standouts was their ability to handle the ball. They totaled just three turnovers.

UCF was in control of the ballgame by midway of the second half. They outscored USM 10-0 on fast break points and outrebounded them 45-28 with the help of Erika Jones grabbing seven offensive rebounds, 11 for the game and Ashia Kelly adding five.