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Riley Kugel dunks on TCU | Photo: Derek Warden
Forward Jordan Burks took charge, matching his career high with 23 points to go along with seven rebounds in the Knights’ 82-71 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs on Tuesday night.
Burks got off to a hot start, nailing four threes in the first half and had 16 points heading into the break. Senior Guard Themus Fulks said Burks is essential to the Knights’ success every game, even beyond his scoring ability.
“He’s important every night,” Fulks said. “I hate that it doesn’t show up all the time on the stat sheet because people don’t give him his flowers unless he has a lot of points or hits a lot of threes. He’s a focal point for our team, and without him we probably wouldn’t be in this position.”
UCF got off to an early lead and did not let up the entire game. Besides the first 14 seconds tied at zero, the Knights held the lead for the entire game.
UCF controlled a 42-28 lead at halftime in large part thanks to its defense. The Horned Frogs shot just 34% from the field in the first half and were 2-11 from beyond the arc.
UCF Head Coach Johnny Dawkins said the Knights did a good job of executing defensively in the first half.
“We just really concentrate on how we need to defend,” Dawkins said. “Every team comes out with a game plan, and our game plan was to understand who their personnel was and try to defend them accordingly, and I thought we did a good job of that in the first half.”
Forward Jamichael Stillwell returned for the Knights after missing the last game due to injury. Last game, Stillwell watched from the bench as his team surrendered a 14-point lead to West Virginia.
As TCU went on a 9-0 run in the second half to cut the Knights’ lead to 10 points, Stillwell was available this time around to staunch the Horned Frogs’ momentum with an opportunity to right the mistakes from last game.
“I think Coach called a timeout, and he said in the timeout, ‘The basketball gods put us in this situation again,’ so you really don’t get time to redo things,” Stillwell said. “That was a time to redo it, and we pulled it out this time.”
TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said he had a feeling Stillwell was ready to go for this matchup, despite being listed as a game-time decision entering the game.
“I’m not very bright,” Dixon joked. “But I knew that one was coming. We did everything anticipating he was going to play.”
The Knights now turn their attention to their upcoming road trip to Utah. UCF will play Utah on Saturday night at 9 p.m. and then BYU on Tuesday at 11 p.m.
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