UCF Men's Basketball Shocks Wichita State Hearts

UCF Basketball falls behind early, rallies to defeat Wichita State.

Stephen Leonard | Feb 9, 2022

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Orlando, FL- It’s a victory, but it had it’s ups and downs. The UCF Knights squared off with the Wichita State Shockers at the Addition Financial Arena. Entering the game both teams were under .500 in conference play with UCF holding a 5-6 record while 3-5 is how Wichita State opened American Athletic Conference play. The crowd look more full than regular, which isn’t saying much and the Knightmare student section rowdy as always.

Despite an electrifying crossover deep two point score to start the scoring for UCF, they fell down early 11-2. That’s when the Knights woke up after UCF Head Basketball Coach Johnny Dawkins called a time out. At that point, his men came back out and rallied with a Brandon Mahan steal and three pointer being the catalyst for a 12-4 run by the Knights.

UCF finally took their first lead of the game after nine minutes of action with a Darius Perry layup, it was Perry’s thousandth career point. That’s when Darin Green Jr. began firing, scoring back to back deep three point shots. Green led the Knights in scoring finishing the game with

With the Knights starting to pull ahead, an altercation between the Wichita State coaching staff and Green occurred with UCF players separating him from the situation. Following the altercation every UCF basket resulted in a stare down of the Wichita State bench. That seemed to cause another spark in the UCF offense as the guards began hitting their outside shots and Chiekh Mbacke Diong scored six quick points, including a huge alley oop off of a feed from CJ Walker.

AIRLANDO ‼😱 @MbackeDiong pic.twitter.com/ounf4kdni3
— UCF Men’s Hoops 🌴 (@UCF_MBB) February 9, 2022

The Knights returned from halftime with a commanding 43-29 lead, and returned to their fine form with Diong and Darius Johnson scoring early. However, that began to slow down and Wichita State’s Dexter Dennis hit two threes giving the Shockers all of the momentum. After a 13-0 Shockers run only found themselves down two points with just over 13 minutes of action remaining.

Knights can’t buy a bucket right now Shockers on 13 point run only down two
— STEPHEN LEONARD (@SLeonard247) February 9, 2022

That did not seem to matter to Green though, as he went up the court scored a deep two, then after good defense drained a three pointer. The Shockers scored another four points, but the scoring went to an almost standstill with neither team scoring for over two minutes. Walker reopened the scoring with a three pointer. Both teams continued to trade scores, but a four point play by Mahan gave the Knights an eight point lead with under three minutes remaining.

That’s when Wichita State made yet another comeback. Wichita State’s Tyson Etienne hit two three pointers from way downtown and had the Shockers only down two with under two minutes to go.

A quick basket and one free throw by Mahan with just under half a minute left gifted UCF a lead of 69-64. The teams traded free throws again with Mahan bringing his total to 19 points and putting the Knights ahead by an insurmountable lead with his final two points. Knights win 71-66 over the Shockers.

Yessir ‼️ @MbackeDiong pic.twitter.com/8w313bldMC
— UCF Men’s Hoops 🌴 (@UCF_MBB) February 9, 2022

On To Tulsa

UCF will stay at home next Monday, with a game against last place Tulsa. The Knights will look to keep their home momentum going, UCF hasn’t lost at home in the month of February.

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