UCF, Winter Park and Edgewater basketball teams falter

When the pressure came, the Knights buckled under its weight in a crushing 67-41 loss to UConn on their home court Sunday afternoon.

It was already looking to be a painful game when it started out with a technical foul by UConn’s Philip Nolan on UCF’s A.J. Davis just 16 seconds in. A moment later Davis, frequently among the team’s top scorers, dropped two free throws into the basket, already eclipsing the amount of shots he’d have fall from anywhere else on the court that day.

The Knights shot 23.5 percent from the floor in the game, and just 25 percent from three-point land. Davis landed just one of his 11 heaves when he wasn’t standing on the free throw line. It was a trouncing where everybody but UCF sixth-man Matt Williams fell apart. Williams would shore up what little offense the Knights could muster in their lowest-scoring game of the season, throwing down 10 points himself.

In the meantime the Knights got to watch what an energetic, well-orchestrated team could do. The Huskies would collect 12 points on fast breaks; the Knights didn’t snag any. The Huskies had 36 points in the paint; triple what the Knights mustered. And the Huskies came up with 13 assists; the Knights dished out less than half that. Spreading the ball around, the Huskies had five players with at least nine points scored.

In what started as a defensive stalemate, the Knights held onto a slim lead for the first five minutes as neither team managed to land shots well. But then with just five minutes gone in the first half, the Huskies snagged the lead, and the scoreless fundamentals game swung wildly into a blowout. Four minutes later, the Huskies already led by 15 points, propelled by a wild scoring run ignited by the return of a long-injured Amida Brimah. Just a little more than 11 minutes into the game, the Huskies were already throwing down alley-oop dunks.

With their scoring falling apart and the Huskies running wild, the Knights would give UConn its biggest conference rout in 10 years. The Knights couldn’t shrink the chasm-wide scoring gap narrower than 16 points in the second half.

The loss dropped the Knights to 10-9 overall and 4-4 in the AAC. Now the Huskies are 15-6 overall and 5-3 in the conference. And as the Knights sink farther toward the bottom of the AAC ladder, they’ll face the team that’s trying to climb off of it. Tulane (8-15, 1-9) hasn’t won a conference game since stomping USF 81-70 on Jan. 12. And that win didn’t set any precedents, as the Green Wave lost to USF in their Jan. 27 rematch by an even larger margin than they’d won two weeks prior.

After that the Knights come back to host Temple (12-8, 6-3) at noon on Saturday, then hosting Cincinnati (16-6, 6-3) at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.

Rollins

The Tars men’s basketball team is 16-4 overall and 6-3 in the Sunshine State Conference after edging Embry-Riddle in a 97-93 shootout. Sophomore Jeff Merton let loose with a team-leading 22 points, with James Ferrell giving him a lot of help with nine rebounds.

It was a team effort on offense with the wild win, with the Tars shooting 57.9 percent from the floor. They also grabbed 35 rebounds.

The Tars traveled to Eckerd for a showdown at press time Wednesday, but will return to the court when they host Nova Southeastern (8-11 3-7) at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Sharks are fresh off a 79-78 edging of Palm Beach Atlantic on Jan. 30.

Winter Park

The Winter Park boys basketball team stared down a team looking for a second upset in a row Wednesday night at press time. Orlando’s No. 5 seed University High School had taken down the No. 4 seeded Colonial on Tuesday night to earn a shot at No. 1 Winter Park. The Wildcats, with a win, will clinch their spot in the postseason and earn a berth into the championship game at 7 p.m. Friday at Timber Creek High School.

The lady Wildcats let four Colonial players into double digits in a 66-63 heartbreaker loss in the Class 8A District 4 championship game. The host Grenadiers (22-4, 9-3) swiped the home court advantage from the Wildcats, who enter the regional tournament as runners up. The Wildcats will play their quarterfinal round away against Wekiva at 7 p.m. tonight.

Edgewater

The boys (12-13) fell apart on the court in a 66-62 loss that upended the district on Tuesday night. The Eagles had been 4-1 in district play before they faced Lake Gibson in the opening round of the district tournament. With the loss, the Eagles, who had been flying high all season, were ejected from the postseason.

The lady Eagles (18-5, 6-0) carried an undefeated district record into the district tournament. By the time they left, it was still well in tact, as they destroyed Lake Region 89-10, then cruised to a championship in an 83-43 blowout over Auburndale on Jan. 29.

The Eagles get home court advantage for the first round of regionals, which tips off at 7 p.m. tonight against Mainland.