--ORLANDO

The University of South Florida Bulls got pushed around by the UCF Knights, 78-65 on Wednesday night. The Knights got ahead early on and dominated throughout, coasting to an easy win.

The Knights got out to a hot start in the first half, scoring the first 13 points in the game with just over 16 minutes remaining in the period. They would go on another run, 18-11, to give them a 19 point lead, 31-12 with 5:18 to go before halftime. The Bulls would claw their way back to within 11 with less than a minute to go, but a three point shot by Terrell Allen at the buzzer would extend the UCF lead to 14, 39-25, at the halftime break.

UCF started the second half like the first, with a 21-9 scoring run in the first five minutes, extending their lead to 26, 60-34. The Knights maintained a 20+ point lead throughout much of the second half. With 2:33 to go in the game, a free throw by LaQuincy Rideau cut the Knights’ lead to 19. The Bulls would outscore the Knights, 6-1 in the final two minutes, but too much damage had been done. USF would fall by 13, 78-65.

Tacko Fall was the question the Bulls just could not answer. Fall finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, leading the Knights in scoring and tying Chad Brown for the lead in rebounds. As impressive as those numbers are, he could have done a lot more damage from the free throw line, where he was 9-21. It seemed that every time he touched the ball, a Bull was called for a foul. Three other Knights scored in double-digits. Allen finished with 14 points, second on the team. B.J. Taylor finished with 13 and Aubrey Dawkins tallied up ten points. To compliment his baker’s dozen, Taylor also led the team with seven assists.

While it often appeared that nothing was going right for the Bulls, David Collins had a very good day. Collins scored 20 points and was 9-12 from the free throw line. Justin Brown and Rideau also broke into double-digits, with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Alexis Yetna pulled down a team-leading 12 rebounds in his first game back from a hamstring injury.

Not surprisingly, the Knights dominated most aspects of the game. They outshot the Bulls, 55%-37%, had more points off of turnovers, 19-6, dominated the paint, 32-20.

After the game, Brian Gregory spoke to the press.

“I think over the last couple of games, you saw the Central Florida team that was picked to win the league,” said Gregory. “They played extremely well. We didn’t play very well and a lot of it had to do with what they did. Give them credit. They outplayed us.”

Gregory was asked about the challenge of covering Fall.

“We have freshman starting on him. It’s a hard matchup. Then you have a sophomore guarding him, then you have Antun guarding him. Give him credit. Obviously he was force and I thought he was every bit of a force on the defensive end as he was on the offensive end.”

“We got beat by a better team tonight,” “We didn’t play very well tonight. We’re a good team. We’re a competitive team. But tonight there was no question that Central Florida was better than us.”

The Knights improve to 18-5 (8-3) on the season. They will host Memphis on Saturday, February 16th. That game will tip-off at 6:00 PM EST.

USF will hope to bounce back against Temple on Saturday for a 6:00 PM EST tip-off time of their own. They drop to 17-7 (7-5) with the loss. ESPNU will provide television coverage.