UCF barely outlasts Houston on the court

Two three-point shots at the last possible moment gave the Knights a dramatic overtime win far away in Houston on Tuesday night.

Brandon Goodwin hit his 30th point of the night two seconds before the end of a 79-78 slugfest that Goodwin himself had taken into overtime just minutes before.

That final tally for Goodwin came when he stepped back under pressure for a three-point shot with just over a second remaining on the clock. Boom.

Minutes before he had tossed a shot from nearly half court that sent the Knights into overtime after what seemed like a certain loss.

Goodwin’s heroics would help make up for the Knights’ second half slump that forced them to have to tie to keep their hopes alive.

The Knights (8-6, 1-2) had led 42-30 at the half before letting the Cougars (7-7, 0-3) back into the game on a blistering scoring run that erased the Knights’ lead in less than four minutes at the start of the period.

From that point on the Cougars seemed to be in full control, at one point ripping out an 11-point lead with just over six minutes left to play before the Knights started whittling away.

That’s when Goodwin caught fire. He already had 18 points with less than two minutes to play in the game and the Knights only behind by six. Then he dished out a pass to Kasey Wilson for a three to bring the score within a shot. Then a minute later he hammered home a jumpshot that brought the Knights within a point. Then with less than 20 seconds left and after the Knights let the score slip back to a four-point gap, Goodwin hit another jumper. Eight seconds of game time later, he drove the lane and made it a one-point game again with a layup in traffic. Five seconds later, the three-pointer fell.

The Knights would let Houston score twice in overtime before Goodwin’s heroics would put it away with only a second left.

For the Knights, who enter a gauntlet of conference teams in the coming months, the win was a welcome break from their two-game losing streak against Tulsa and Temple over the holidays to start American Athletic Conference play.

They get a few days off before hosting SMU at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Mustangs are 10-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play after obliterating USF on New Year’s Eve 83-49 then following it up with a narrow 56-50 loss to Cincinnati three days later.

Already having narrowly lost to one of two AAC teams to get votes in the NCAA Top 25 polls (84-78 to Temple), the Knights won’t face their next nearly ranked team until Jan. 25, when Cincinnati comes to town.