UCF basketball is set to conclude its 5-day, 2-game trek in Utah with a showdown against No. 19 BYU at the Marriott Center in Provo on Tuesday night.
The Knights are coming off a nail-biter against Utah, where point guard Themus Fulks nailed two free throws with 3 seconds left for a 73-71 win over the Utes.
“[It] just shows how good this league is and it’s a gauntlet every single night, every opponent,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. “It’s just a function of how I thought our guys did a great job just finding a way at the end to make plays and win the game.
“Our guys came in understanding just how good a team they were and we knew we had to play for 40 minutes, and it took all 40 minutes tonight.”
Fulks finished with a game-high 24 points while forward Jordan Burks added 14.
UCF shot 53% (30 of 57) from the field, scoring 18 points off of 11 Utes’ turnovers.
“That’s important for us. I thought we did a good job in that area, gaining some points,” said Dawkins. “Definitely creating points off turnovers is a big, big part of what we want to do.”
The Knights were without starter Riley Kugel, who missed Saturday’s game after suffering an apparent lower leg injury during the team’s 82-71 win over TCU on Feb. 17. The senior guard, who is tied with Fulks in leading the team in scoring with 14 points per game, had to be helped to the locker room following the win.
Dawkins said Kugel’s status remains day-to-day.
It was the second straight win for UCF (19-7, 8-6 Big 12), which moved one step closer to a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Knights have four games remaining and could all but lock up a spot in the 68-team field with another win.
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UCF is 46th in the latest NCAA NET rankings, the primary system used by the Division I basketball committee to evaluate teams for NCAA Tournament selection. The Knights enter Tuesday’s contest with four Quad 1 wins, including victories over Texas A&M, Kansas and Texas Tech.
UCF has been projected to be anywhere from a 7th to a 10th seed in the latest bracketology projections.
BYU (20-7, 8-6 Big 12) is 13-2 at home, with the two losses coming against Arizona (Jan. 26) and Houston (Feb. 7). The Cougars are riding high after a 79-69 win over No. 6 Iowa State last Saturday.
Freshman forward AJ Dybantsa leads the Big 12 in scoring, averaging 24.6 points per game, while sophomore guard Robert Wright is averaging 18 points per game.
BYU will be without senior guard Richie Saunders (18 ppg.), who suffered a season-ending ACL injury on Feb. 15.
UCF, meanwhile, is winless against the Cougars (0-4).
The Knights return home to host Baylor on Saturday and Oklahoma State (March 3) before wrapping up the regular season on the road at West Virginia (March 6).
Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.