UCF Knights lose last-second OT heartbreaker

A difficult bracket in the American Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship tournament proved insurmountable for the UCF Knights, who fell in a first round overtime thriller to East Carolina 81-80 on March 12.

The Knights were facing statistically vertical odds as they stumbled into the AAC tournament, having never beaten any of the teams in their bracket during the 2014-15 season. The reason they were facing that daunting challenge at all was a massive late-season collapse that sent them to near the bottom of the AAC ladder, landing them the third-lowest seed in the tournament.

The Knights didn't make it out of the first round, with a wild second quarter comeback giving way to a heartbreaking one-point loss in overtime in Hartford, Conn.

The Knights were behind 38-30 when they started the second half of the game, coming out of the locker room as a team possessed. In an instant, they were shooting better than they had all season, sinking 61.3 percent of their shots — one of their highest scoring periods of the season.

That wild jump in accuracy would propel them to an eight-point comeback to tie it all up as regulation ran out.

“I was proud of how our kids played in that second half,” UCF head coach Donnie Jones said. “We came out with some grit and some toughness.”

It would be Kasey Wilson, the longtime Knight in his final game in the uniform, who would launch the game-tying layup with four seconds left in regulation. And it would be Wilson who would watch his would-be game winner bounce out in the final seconds of the extra period. In the final three minutes of overtime the lead hadn't changed, and nobody had scored at all, amid a clanging chorus of half a dozen missed shots.

Needing some heart to pull off an unlikely win, the Knights had seen 325-pound center Justin McBride sink a jumpshot, and Wilson brought the Knights within a score with his free throws. But it wouldn't be enough as the clock struck zero on a disappointing Knights' season.

McBride would play an unlikely star for the Knights, coming off the bench to lead the team on rebounds and notch a double-double with 12 points and 11 boards in 31 minutes on the floor. B.J. Taylor would lead the team with 22 points, with fellow freshman Adonys Henriquez just behind with 17 points.

Even had they won over East Carolina, the Knights would have faced NCAA Tournament invitee SMU, which has been ranked in the AP Top 25 for several weeks. The ECU Pirates would fall in the next round of the tournament. The SMU Mustangs, who beat the Pirates, would go on to win the whole tournament, earning a No. 6 seed in the South Division of the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

With a crop of freshmen and sophomores comprising the majority of the Knights starting squad, they'll be looking ahead to a more experienced team next season. They lose only two players, Wilson and bench player Myles Davis, to graduation.