Moustapha Thiam met the free throw for UCF with 55 seconds left when Knights picked up a victory 76-75 against Oregon State in the opening round for the College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.
Darius Johnson, Tyler Hendricks and Nils Machowski led UCF with 15 points per piece. Hendricks also had 10 returns. Thiam added 10 points and nine returns for UCF (18-16), which will play Cincinnati in a second round on Thursday.
Liutauras Lelevicius scored a heap of play 20 points and Maxim Logue had a double double from the bench with 18 points and 10 returns. Damarco Minor added 16 points and eight returns and Isaiah sewing chipped in 12 points for Beaver (20-13).
The knights took the lead 75-74 when Johnson met a couple of free throw with 1:32 to play. The smaller band the game at 75-75 when he shared a pair of foul shots.
After Thiam’s free throw, UCF forced an Oregon state miss on its next possession, but the knights could not run out the clock. After a Thiam rejection, Beavers received an offensive recovery with 5.4 seconds left, but Lelevicius 3-point attempt was long at the summer.
Oregon State shook Rost from a 24-day break only when Lelevicius Layup extended Beaver’s lead to 19-12 at the first half 11:55.
But hot shooting behind the bow got the knights back in the game because a 16-4 run gave UCF a 28-23 on Bly Johnson’s triple in transition. UCF made 8 of 19 3-point attempts during the first half and 10 out of 26 for the game.
It was a tight game until UCF went on a 7-0 run to close the first half. A can of Thiam Dunk, a Trey of Dallan Coleman and Hendrick’s arrangement all came in the transition when UCF took a lead of 45-36.
When Josiah Lake II cut the knights’ lead to 54-50 with a pull-up jumper, Johnson replied with a deep 3 for the knights with 14:07 to play.
Logues jam drew the bearse within 58-56 with 11:06 left. His Fastbreak arrangement led to an old-fashioned three-point game that gave Beavers a lead of 62-61 at the brand 9:21.
-Field level media
