Houston's defense clamps down UCF in 57-42 victory

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POSTED: January 20, 2024 -- 11:33 p.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX -- (Fertitta Center)

"Defense!" "Defense!" "Defense!"

Saturday afternoon, the Houston Cougars defeated the UCF Knights 57-42 in a grind it out, glorious, defensive battle. Houston and UCF have squared off numerous times the last few years in the American Athletic Conference; and, the familiarity with each other was evident in Saturday's game.

"Our defense keeps getting better because we keep working on it," Kelvin Sampson, Houston Head Coach said after the game.

Both team's struggled to make shots as the defenses seemed to know how to remedy any sets tossed at them. However, in the end, Houston guard LJ Cryer provided enough offense with a game-high 16 points to lead Houston to the win.

Houston (16-2 overall, 3-2 in Big 12) led UCF 28-14 at halftime. The Knights (11-6, 2-3) did not make a single two-point field goal in the first half. UCF attempted 15 twos in the opening half and missed all 15. The Knights made 3 three-pointers in the half (out of 9 attempts). Add it up: UCF made 3 out of 24 field goal attempts in the half for an icy 12.5 fg%.

The Knights' struggles on offense continued into the second half. UCF was 0 for 9 and did not make a field goal for nearly 10 minutes. With 10:17 on the clock, UCF's Omar Payne made a layup to end UCF's field goal and two-point field goal drought.

The Coogs' offense wasn't setting anything on fire either; and, in spite of UCF's field goal drought, Houston's lead was just 17 (37-20) after Payne's basket.

Houston received productive minutes from reserve forward Ramon Walker Jr and reserve guard Mylik Wilson. The two of them maintained Houston's defensive intensity but also provided some offense which boosted Houston's lead to as much as 25 points in the second half.

UCF trailed by 24 (51-27) with 6:12 remaining in the ball game. Houston didn't score for nearly 3 minutes; and, UCF's 9-0 spurt trimmed Houston's lead to 15 (51-26). Houston point guard Jamal Shead tossed a lob pass to big man Ja'Vier Francis for an alley-oop slam dunk to end Houston's 3 minute scoring drought.

Francis and Shead each scored 10 points in the win.

"The game is kind of slowing down for me," Francis said after the game. "It used to be super, super fast and I really couldn't keep up; but, now it's starting to slow down a little bit."

Walker added 2 free throws and Wilson scored a layup to cap the Coogs' scoring.

UCF finished the game making just 7 of 44 field goals for a Big 12 record low 15.9 fg%.

"I'd say good job on our part," Shead remarked. "We followed the scouting report to a T. Coach did a good job preparing us, we played defense pretty well tonight, just fouled a little bit too much tonight."

The Knights scored most of their points at the foul line. UCF made 24 of 33 free throws to avoid the lowest scoring total in UCF program history (38).

"I thought they were phenomenal defensively," Johnny Dawkins, UCF Head Coach said. "I've seen some terrific defensive teams by Houston; but, I don't think I've seen one defend as well as I've seen this team, right here, defend for 40 minutes."

Houston's next game is Tuesday, January 23, on the road, against BYU. Tip is scheduled for 8 pm CT on ESPN+.

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