No. 25 UCF riding high into matchup with Oklahoma State

Oklahoma State will put its attention toward defense when it faces No. 25 UCF on Tuesday in a Big 12 Conference game at Stillwater, Okla.

Oklahoma State will put its attention toward defense when it faces No. 25 UCF on Tuesday in a Big 12 Conference game at Stillwater, Okla.

Oklahoma State dropped its conference opener 102-80 to then-No. 15 Texas Tech on Saturday, while UCF is riding high after the Knights started their conference run with a chest-thumping victory over a long-time national power.

UCF (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) has continued to raise its profile while on an 11-game winning streak that was mostly built on the strength of its nonconference schedule. The run of success was validated with an 81-75 victory at home over then-No. 17 Kansas on Saturday.

With the game tied 72-72 in the final minute, UCF's Jordan Burks made a 3-pointer for the lead with 42 seconds left on the clock. The Knights' Riley Kugel converted a three-point play off of a fastbreak layup with nine seconds remaining to put the game away.

Kansas missed a pair of 3-point attempts in the final 31 seconds and converted just three free throws over the final minute.

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins has raised the stakes for his team, whose only loss came when it struggled on defense in a 105-93 home loss to Vanderbilt in the second game of the season.

"I thought we finished strong and other things we were talking about as a team prior to going away for the Christmas break, how we have to play in conference, and I feel that our guys reflected that today and how we finished the game," Dawkins said.

"We're not just playing the opponent in front of us, we're trying to play to our standards, and we have certain things we want our guys to do well every night, and we try to hold him accountable for that."

The Knights are led by senior guard Kugel, who scored 19 points against the Jayhawks and is scoring 14.1 per game for the season.

Senior guard Themus Fulks scored 16 points against Kansas and is averaging 13.5 for the season, while Burks added 14 points.

The Knights held the Jayhawks to 43.2% from the floor, under their season average of 46.5%. They also had a 38-30 advantage on points in the paint and committed just six turnovers while forcing 12.

Oklahoma State (12-2, 0-1) gave up its most points in a game when it was rocked by Texas Tech, which shot 48.1% from the floor and had a 48-36 rebounding average. It was just the third time the Cowboys have been outrebounded this season.

In games when the Cowboys have scored more than 80 points, they are 12-0. They have lost both contests while scoring 80 or less.

Oklahoma State shot 43.3% on 67 total shots from the floor, compared to 77 for Texas Tech. The Cowboys were also 30.8% (8 of 26) from 3-point range, while the Red Raiders made 17 shots from 3-point range.

Cowboys coach Steve Lutz said the approach on the offense end led to the team's issues on defense.

"Eighty points on the road in the Big 12 should be enough to win games, but not when you give up 102; that is embarrassing," Lutz said. "We took ill-advised, unpredictable and selfish shots. It killed us.

"You can't allow people to score the ball at the rate they did. It is a hard pill to swallow."

Anthony Roy had 22 points and eight rebounds against Texas Tech, while making six of his eight attempts from 3-point range. He scored at least 20 points for the third consecutive game. The senior guard leads the Cowboys with 17.7 points per game.

Senior forward Parsa Fallah scored 20 points and is averaging 13.6 per game along with 6.1 rebounds. Vyctorius Miller was held to five points, well below his 15.1 average, on 2-of-8 shooting.

–Field Level Media