UCF beats Auburn, falls to Niagara

After a 2-0 start in the Glenn Wilkes Classic, the UCF men's basketball team cooled off Saturday afternoon when Niagara handed them their first loss of the season.

On Friday night, the Knights (3-1) defeated the Auburn Tigers 84-74, for their first win over an SEC team in school history. They had entered the game 0-27 all-time against SEC squads.

UCF was led by junior A.J. Tyler's 19 points and eight rebounds and freshman Dave Diakite's 12 points and 10 boards. The Knights used a balanced scoring effort to get their second straight victory of the tournament, after beating Howard earlier in the week.

The Knights came out of the gate strong, opening up with a 13-0 spurt that was led by Diakite and Taylor Young, who finished with 12 points and five assists. UCF went into the intermission with a firm 41-24 lead.

Frankie Sullivan led the Tigers (2-2) with 22 points and six rebounds, while while Marcus Jordan tallied his first points of the season with seven against the Tigers. Although Auburn put together runs in attempting to cut the deficit, they simply couldn't overcome UCF's offensive attack and a perfect eight-for-eight performance from the free-throw line in the final minute of regulation.

Unfortunately, UCF's hot start was put to an end in a 63-46 loss to Niagara Saturday. The Purple Eagles (3-1) capitalized on several UCF mistakes and a poor shooting night en rout to a blowout victory.

"That was a game that was a veteran group verse a non-veteran group," UCF head coach Kirk Speraw said. "Obviously, the way they can bounce back and prepare is key. They certainly did that a whole lot better than we did."

"We were very concerned about having a good victory last night and coming out with less intensity tonight, and we couldn't afford to do that. But, that's exactly what happened."

Although it was a physical game in the first half, the Knights failed to overcome a horrendous shooting night and lapses on defense. After posting 84 points over Auburn, UCF could only muster 46 points on 31 percent shooting, including an awful four-of-23 (17 percent) shooting from the three-point line.

"Today was a lack of execution," forward A.J. Tyler said. "We were getting good shots yesterday, but today we didn't. We need to execute better tomorrow."

Tyler was the only Knight in double digits with 12 points, to go along with seven boards and two blocks. Young contributed with nine points and three assists.

UCF was doomed by sloppy play that included 23 turnovers in the game, with 14 in the opening half.

The Niagara defense was a major reason the Knights looked confused offensively. They altered their defensive scheme constantly throughout the game, which stifled the UCF offense.

"They switched up a lot on defense, but I don't feel like that's an excuse for what we did out there," Tyler said. "There was some confusion, but we just need to communicate better."

Demetrius Williamson led the Purple Eagles with 13 points. Anthony Nelson contributed with 11 points and five assists, and Bilal Benn posted 10 points and six rebounds.

"It's a learning experience," Speraw said. "We knew going into this season there were going to be days like this. You try to prepare to allow it not to happen, but we knew with this team, there was going to be great highs and probably going to be some lows. We just got to be able to respond better tomorrow." 

UCF took on Drake Sunday in the finale of Glenn Wilkes Classic, but results weren't available by press time. For a full recap go to www.UCFNews.com.