The UCF men’s basketball season might have seen the final curtain closed on their quest to make it into the NCAA men’s basketball tournament on Wednesday after their upset bid fell short against the Houston Cougars, 67-59, in the final home game of the season at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.
After securing their first back-to-back road wins of the season, the Knights entered this week with high morale despite hosting two tier-1 teams in the Big 12 and the Nation: Iowa State and Houston.
The Knights would get their reality check soon, collapsing in the homestretch mark of both games after going toe-to-toe against these elite teams.
UCF led Iowa State by one point, 50-49, before letting the Cyclones bust out a furious 11-0 run to close the game.
A similar tale unfolded against Houston as the Knights took a 31-28 advantage at halftime and had a 7-point lead in the early minutes of the second half before falling apart again late.
Final from Orlando ???? pic.twitter.com/FZl4RoEboY
— UCF Men’s Hoops ???? (@UCF_MBB) March 7, 2024
CJ Walker finished his last home game as a Knight with a team-high 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting, while fellow senior Ibrahima Dialo had 6 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
Jaylin Sellers and Darius Johnson also delivered double-digit outputs with 12 and 14 points respectively. Unfortunately, their effort to give their seniors a memorable send-off fell flat against the Big 12 powerhouse Houston.
Senior guard L.J Cryer starred for the Cougars with 25 points on 9-for-17 shooting and 5-for-11 from deep. Houston, who improved to 27-3 overall and 14-3 in Big 12, will wrap up their regular-season schedule against Kansas on March 10 before marching into the Big 12 tournament as one of the favorites to win it all.
UCF, on the other hand, dropped to 15-14 and 6-11 in their inaugural Big 12 campaign. The Knights will finish their regular-season schedule on the road against TCU on March 10 before kicking off their Big 12 tournament campaign two days later.
