UCF coach Johnny Dawkins emphasized to his players about the merits of competing for a full 40 minutes earlier this week, and apparently the Knights were listening.
After an 11-point wire-to-wire home win on Tuesday over TCU, a “Last 4 In” Big 12 Conference bubble rival, the Knights will start an important two-game road trip Saturday night when they face last-place Utah in Salt Lake City.
In a sixth-place tie with No. 23 BYU and West Virginia, UCF (18-7, 7-6 Big 12) snapped a frustrating three-game skid in the 82-71 victory over the Horned Frogs.
Jordan Burks, a 13-point-per-game scorer, matched his best offensive performance this season by netting 23 — 16 coming in the first half. He stroked five of 12 long-distance shots for the game.
UCF has a balanced scoring attack that lets the game come to Dawkins’ squad instead of focusing on a single go-to shooter.
“We just really wanted to play off each other; let the ball find the guy who has a great opportunity, and we play that way and just trust your teammates, you know, everyone trusting everyone on the floor,” Dawkins said on Tuesday. “Tonight, it found Jordan.”
Riley Kugel paces the club with 14 ppg, while Themus Fulks (13.6) and Jamichael Stillwell (12.1) net double figures.
Seldom-used George Beale Jr. entered the contest and hit 3 of 4 from distance for a season-best 11 points in just 12 minutes.
The Knights will end the road swing in Provo against the BYU Cougars on Tuesday night.
Following a seven-game losing streak, the Utes (10-16, 2-11) traveled to West Virginia on Wednesday, never trailed and promptly damaged the Mountaineers’ NCAA Tournament hopes in a 61-56 outcome against the Quad-3 visitors.
For just the second time this season, Seydou Traore topped the Utes in scoring with 17 points and chipped in six rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks.
But his work on the defensive end, guarding West Virginia leading scorer Honor Huff, was what Utah coach Alex Jensen liked, especially Traore’s two late blocked shots. Huff finished with 12 points, 3.5 below his average.
“(Huff’s) one of those guys who could score a lot of points in a little amount of time,” said Jensen, whose club broke a 15-game road losing streak. “We started Seydou on him, and he did a great job.
“It’s kind of a point I’ve been making to our guys — when you focus on the defensive part of it, which Seydou took the challenge of guarding him, and it’s amazing how it makes your offensive game easy.”
