UCF basketball starts strong in conference

Bursting into conference play with a win, UCF’s men’s basketball team found redemption against a team that beat them three times last season. And they did it after being behind by 10 points with less than eight minutes left to play in the game, on East Carolina’s home court.

In a five minute span the Knights went on a wild scoring run that demolished that double-digit deficit and gave them the lead with three minutes to play. But the Knights almost gave that win right back when, with seven seconds left on the clock, they let the Pirates creep to within a point of tying the game with a series of foul shots. A second later, with the score reading 69-68, UCF’s Tanksley Efianayi got fouled and went to the free throw line. Both shots fell, stretching the Knights’ lead a single three-pointer wide. When the Pirates’ Prince Williams let one fly from beyond the big arc with just two seconds left, the game was hanging in the balance before the finality of the finish clanged off the rim.

A.J. Davis led the Knights in points, with 23, snagging six rebounds on the way. Backup big man Justin McBride came off the bench and grabbed a game-leading 13 rebounds — more than twice as many as any other player on the floor — in just 22 minutes of playing time. Four Knights entered double digits in scoring in the game.

The win was a leap forward into American Athletic Conference play with an urgency that the Knights lacked in their 2014-15 campaign, when they arrived at that point in the season carrying a 7-4 record then lost nine of their first 11 conference games, not winning an AAC game in regulation time until Feb. 11.

The Knights came back into town Wednesday at press time for a showdown against I-4 rival USF, which as of the start of the week held the worst overall record in the AAC at 3-12.

After that early tune-up, the Knights will travel to No. 15 SMU for a 4 p.m. tipoff Sunday. Heading into the week, the Mustangs hadn’t lost a game all season, at 13-0. The Mustangs spent New Year’s weekend destroying USF in Dallas, 72-58, which is nowhere near SMU’s biggest blowout win of the season so far. The biggest one ironically came against their only opponent that reached the NCAA tournament in 2015, Hampton, who the Mustangs decimated 105-72.

Rollins

Rollins’ men’s basketball has gone from a breakout 7-0 start to not winning a game since the first week of December. That four-game losing streak has propelled them to near the bottom of the Sunshine State Conference, with the biggest shove coming from Barry on Jan. 2, which trounced the Tars 98-85 in Miami Shores.

The Tars came home to host Lynn at press time Wednesday. They’ll travel to Saint Leo (8-6, 2-3) for a 4 p.m. tipoff on Saturday.

Winter Park

Despite some stumbles the Winter Park boys’ basketball team has emerged in the new year with a 10-5 record by gutting out their last seven wins by the margin of a single basket. But that streak of nail-biters was broken on Dec. 30 when the boys fell 78-64 to host school Windermere Prep at The Rock Holiday Classic tournament. The Wildcats let five Windermere players score double-digits in the game.

The Wildcats barrel into district play Friday, hosting University at 7:30 p.m. The Cougars are 8-6 on the season, with two district losses so far.

The lady Wildcats have jumped out to a 7-3 start thanks to a four-game winning streak that took a long break over the holidays. Their last win, a 50-37 blasting of Dr. Phillips, was the closest win they’d had since Nov. 12. They played Evans at press time, and will travel to University for their third district game of the season at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Edgewater

The Fightin’ Eagles are fighting off falling below .500 with a 7-6 record and a 72-54 win over Lambert at the Lake City Classic over the holidays. They traveled to Lake Region at press time but will come back to host Evans (9-6) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7.

The lady Eagles are off to an 11-4 record despite a 56-37 loss in the finals of the Naples Holiday Shootout, at the hands of Fort Washington, Penn’s Germantown Academy, making that the lowest scoring game the Eagles have played all season.

The lady Eagles travel to Lake Gibson (8-10) in Lakeland for an 8 p.m. Friday tipoff.