UCF Knights men's basketball team in conference trouble

Six straight losses have pushed the Knights to near the bottom of the American Athletic Conference’s men’s basketball ladder, and they only have seven more games to try to dig their way out before the AAC tournament.

And a 67-50 loss to East Carolina Saturday has dealt a death blow to their chance of a winning conference record.

Their most recent skid was already at three games before Temple (14-7, 5-3) came to town. The Owls were in the middle of the conference standings, but made it look like they were the top when they hung 37 points on UCF in the first half of the game and held the Knights to just 18 on the Knights’ own home court. The Owls would slowly pull away from there, eventually ending with an 86-62 blowout.

That game was on the verge of being a 34-point-wide embarrassment before the Knights (9-13, 2-9) exploded in the last three minutes of the game while Temple substituted in its entire bench and UCF closed the gap by 10 points by the end.

Brandon Goodwin scored 17 points to lead the Knights, who had one of the best shooting halves they’ve had all season, with 53.8 percent dropping, including half their shots from the big arc.

Adonys Henriquez made a name for himself the next game against No. 23 SMU Jan. 31, posting a career night with 22 points to lead the Knights, shooting well over 50 percent overall and burying more than half his three-point attempts in the process.

Unfortunately for the Knights’ guard, the rest of the team shot about 25 percent from the floor en route to a 75-56 rout at the hands of the Mustangs. Only Henriquez would score more than four points for the Knights in the first half. The Knights would then go on to score only 26 points in the second half of a game that by then was already well out of hand, falling behind by as many as 22 points.

The losses dropped the Knights to just a win ahead of the AAC’s worst teams, including rival USF at 7-16 overall and 1-9 in the conference.

The Knights will have a big chance to get back into the win column with their upcoming three games, facing four of the conference’s five worst teams in a row. To emerge from the regular season with an even record, they’ll have to win seven of their final eight conference games after losing eight of their first 10.

When the Knights return home, they’ll face I-4 rival USF for the Bulls’ only game at the CFE Arena this season. The Bulls had seven straight losses going into this week, including a wild 78-71 overtime loss to conference leader Tulsa. The Knights tip off against the Bulls at 7 p.m. Feb. 11.