UCF mauled by Memphis, looks for UConn rebound

The Knights’ bumpy ride through the start of conference play hit a big pothole in Memphis. Just a game after a wild triple-overtime win over Tulane at CFE Arena nearly evened out UCF’s men’s basketball team’s conference record, they fell apart in a 99-79 mauling by the Tigers Saturday night.

That’s not to discount the Knights’ late-game heroics at home against Tulane in that 103-100 win. They would shoot 58.8 percent in overtime — nearly a season high — as B.J. Taylor had a breakout game with 33 points and six rebounds, while four other Knights would chip in with scoring in the double digits. Staphon Blair would score 15 points and grab 13 boards.

What followed was one of the most unusual games the Knights have ever played. Bamboozled by the Memphis defense in the first half of the game, the Knights would shoot only 22.2 percent, missing 21 of 27 shots, while allowing Memphis to shoot a season-high 78.9 percent against the Knights in the same span.

But then in the second half, strangely, the Knights’ shooting accuracy more than tripled to 66.7 percent.

But in one of the wildest disparities the Knights have experienced this year under the boards, they would rebound less than half the balls Memphis would come away with (53 to 24) and watch Memphis give itself enough second chances to spread open an insurmountable gap, raining down 60 points in the second half.

Despite the comeback drama in the shooting department, the game would play out like a foregone conclusion from the start. The Knights were never closer to Memphis than the tipoff. And they were never closer in the second half than they were at the starting whistle. For all the shifts in style of play, the Tigers kept pulling away. The lead would change zero times.

Credit a wide spread of shooters with Memphis’ win, with five players in double digits on the scoreboard, and two of them — bench players Trahson Burrell and Shaq Goodwin — scoring double-doubles.

Underscoring the Knights’ offense-defense disparity, Daiquan Walker would land 18 points but only one rebound. B.J. Taylor would score 17 points and grab only two boards. Center Justin McBride would snag nearly twice as many boards — with nine — as the rest of the starting five combined.

With the loss, the Knights gave Memphis an 11-6 overall and 4-2 conference record. The Knights are now 9-8 overall and 2-4 in American Athletic Conference play.

Thankfully for the Knights, they might have a bit of a reprieve coming up with a showdown against a struggling UConn team (9-7, 2-2). The Huskies frequently find themselves in the NCAA Tournament, but this season they are off to a slow start in AAC play, having lost to a mid-pack Temple and a conference-leading Tulsa.

The Huskies are now in their second losing streak of the season, falling to Tulsa and Stanford back-to-back, with the Cardinal blasting them 72-59.

After their trouncing in Memphis, the Knights will find themselves even farther from home in Storrs, Conn., an unwelcome court given their recent record there. The last time the Knights set foot in the Gampel Pavilion, last season, they lost by 23 points, three points more than when they played them in Orlando later that season.

The game tips off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, and will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.