The UCF Knights Mens Basketball hosted the ECU Pirates Sunday afternoon at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, FL for their last regular season game and Senior Night.  The Knights came in with a 16-13 overall record 7-10 AAC and looking to rebound from a tough last second loss to Temple on Thursday night and also get a win to build on heading into the AAC Conference Tournament.  ECU entered the contest with a 15-15 overall record 6-11 AAC and also looking for a rebound win to close out their regular season.

If the Knights were looking to make a statement win to close out the season, they fully succeeded.  In a game where UCF never trailed, they played one of their most complete games of the season on both sides of the court.  The closest that ECU ever sniffed a lead came at 16:35 in the first when Brandon Johnson made a layup for the Pirates to tie the game 7-7.  The ECU make seemed to be the turning point for UCF for the remainder of the game.

The Knights went on a 14-0 run spawned by a Ithiel Horton 3 pointer and followed by a block by CJ Kelly.  UCF true freshman Taylor Hendricks further ignited the scoring spree scoring 8 of his game high points during the run.  The Knights defense refused to give ECU the opportunity to counter the scoring run and kept the UCF lead in double digits heading into the halftime break 40-25.  

ECU came out in the second half scoring the first 4 points before UCF jumped back on the scoring wagon.  This time it was senior CJ Kelly stepping up for the Knights accounting for all of their next 11points, scoring 9 with an assist to Hendricks, and a 51-31 lead.  The run by Kelly propelled him over the 1,000 points mark in his collegiate career.  

UCF remained in control for remainder of the contest refusing ECU to get any closer than 17 points and as far away as 27 points before closing the win out 84-58.

The Knights featured 4 players in double digit scoring.  True freshman Taylor Hendricks, led the way for UCF with a double-double 25 points 10 rebounds and added 2 blocks.  Ithiel Horton posted 19 points 5/8 3-PT, CJ Kelly added 12 points 5 steals, and Darius Johnson 10 points 4 assists.  

In winning, the Knights close out their regular season with a 17–13 overall 8-10 AAC record.  With the USF loss today to Wichita State today, UCF earns a 7 seed in the AAC Conference tournament at Dixies Arena in Fort Worth, TX and will face 10 seed SMU on Thursday, March 9 at 2:30 p.m.  ECU falls to 15-16 overall 6-12 AAC and will be the 9 seed in the conference tournament and face 8 seed USF.

STATS

ATTENDANCE: 5,204

UCF:  84 pts, 29-57 2-PT, 9-26 3-PT, 17-20 FT, 38 rebs(17 off, 12 def), 15 assists, 13 TO, 9 steals, 13 pts fast break, 24 pts off TO, 32 pts in paint

ECU: 58 pts, 17-47 2-PT, 6-19 3-PT, 18-26 FT, 28 rebs(9 off, 19 def), 4 assists, 16 TO, 7 steals, 11 pts fast break, 9 pts off TO, 18 pts in paint

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

UCF:  T. Hendricks 25 pts 10 rebs 2 blocks, I. Horton 19 pts 5/8 3-PT, CJ Kelly 12 pts 3 assists 5 steals, D. Johnson 10 pts 4 assist

ECU:  E. Ausar 14 pts, B. Johnson 12 pts, J. Walker 11 pts

Photo credit: (cover) Cameron Robertson/FAAZ Sports; (gallery) Sean Russell & Cameron Robertson/FAAZ Sports