UCF bounces back, cruises past TCU 82-71 at home

With its season starting to wobble after three straight losses, UCF walked into Tuesday night knowing it couldn’t afford another slip. The Knights responded with one of their most complete efforts of the year, leading wire to wire in an 82-71 win over TCU at Addition Financial Arena.

Behind a career night from Jordan Burks and a much sharper defensive effort, the Knights are now back above .500 in Big 12 play, improving to 18-7 overall and 7-6 in the league, sliding ahead of TCU (16-10, 6-7) in a crowded middle of the Big 12 and stabilizing an NCAA Tournament résumé that had taken a hit in recent days.

Burks sets the tone, and the pace

If there was any doubt about UCF’s response after blowing a 14-point lead to West Virginia, Burks erased it almost immediately.

The junior wing drilled a 3 on UCF’s opening possession, attacked the rim for a pair of early layups and never really cooled off. Burks finished with 23 points, tying his career high, and seven rebounds, piling up 16 of those points before halftime as UCF built a 42-28 lead.

“I was happy for Jordan,” head coach Johnny Dawkins said. “He’s practiced well, he works very hard, and it’s good to see him get rewarded. He made shots, but I loved how active he was on the boards. Against a physical front line like TCU’s, he really helped us there.”

Burks’ impact, his teammates insist, goes beyond the nights where the points pile up.

“He’s important every night,” Themus Fulks said. “People don’t always give him his flowers unless he hits a lot of threes, but he’s the main guy crashing, getting us extra possessions, guarding one of the top players. He’s a focal point for our team. Without him, we probably wouldn’t be in this position.”

The Knights came out with the “first punch” that both Dawkins and his players talked about needing after Saturday.

“Starting from practice, our mentality was different,” Jamichael Stillwell said. “We came out saying we wanted to throw the first punch, and I think we did that tonight.”

UCF shot a blistering 57.7 percent in the first half and 49.1 percent for the game, including 8-of-20 from 3-point range. Burks went 5-for-12 from deep, and reserve guard George Beale Jr. added three 3-pointers off the bench on his way to 11 points.

TCU, which came in looking for its fourth straight Big 12 win and had been leaning heavily on its defense and transition game, never led and never really found a rhythm from the perimeter. The Horned Frogs finished just 4-of-21 from 3-point range and 17-of-27 at the free-throw line.

“Give them credit — they shoot 90 percent from the line and 40 percent from three,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We didn’t defend well enough to win, and we were playing uphill with foul trouble from the first five minutes. Burks killed us with those threes early. It put us on our heels.”

Fulks controls the game, Stillwell returns

Just as important as Burks’ scoring outburst was the way UCF’s offensive structure returned to something that looked like “UCF Basketball.”

Fifth-year point guard Themus Fulks finished with 14 points and seven assists, attacking when the floor opened up and otherwise happily drawing two defenders and spraying the ball to open teammates.

“Nothing really changed,” Fulks said. “My job is to make plays and make life easier for my teammates. When they put two on me, I know I got J-Mike, I got Burks, I got Riley, I got other outlets. Those guys can make plays too. It was just taking what the defense gave us.”

Dawkins pointed to the assist numbers as a snapshot of how different the Knights looked compared to the stagnant stretches against West Virginia. UCF finished with 17 assists on 28 made field goals and got 26 bench points on a night where the ball rarely stuck.

“We really moved the basketball and shared it,” Dawkins said. “You could see it — it wasn’t about who scored, it was about we scored. That’s when we’re at our best. Defensively, especially in the first half, I thought we did a terrific job of understanding the game plan and flying around to make plays.”

Getting Stillwell back in the lineup helped everything click. After missing the West Virginia game with a practice injury, the senior forward returned to post nine points and six rebounds in 28 minutes, and his presence was felt beyond the box score.

“Jamichael gave us a huge lift,” Dawkins said. “It’s not just the rebounding and defense — it’s the intangibles. He’s a leader. He knows how to play, he knows who he is as a player. Having him back settles us down.”

From Stillwell’s perspective, sitting out Saturday offered a different view of his impact.

“It wasn’t a good feeling on the bench,” he said. “But you see a lot from over there. I saw some things I didn’t even know I brought that much to the team. Tonight I just wanted to bring energy, talk, help us regroup and respond — and I feel like we did that.”

Handling TCU’s runs

Even in a game UCF seemed to control, the script from Saturday threatened to repeat itself.

UCF led by as many as 19 with just over 10 minutes to play before TCU made its inevitable push. Micah Robinson (20 points), David Punch (14) and Xavier Edmonds (12 points, 10 rebounds) powered a 9-0 burst that cut the margin to 10, then a late 14-3 run brought the Frogs within 78-69 with 59 seconds left.

This time, the Knights didn’t flinch.

After that first surge, Dawkins used a timeout to reset his team — and the message stuck with his players.

“Coach told us the basketball gods put us in this situation again,” Stillwell said. “You don’t really get many chances to redo things. Saturday we didn’t finish it, so this time we had to.”

Fulks responded with a floater to stem the first run and later knocked down four free throws in the final minute as UCF closed the door. The Knights, who had struggled in late-game situations during the losing streak, finished the night 18-of-20 at the line and outscored TCU 18-12 in fast-break points.

“I thought our guys did a much better job of closing,” Dawkins said. “They made their run — good teams are going to do that. But we stayed with the game plan, we stayed connected and we found ways to change the momentum back in our favor.”

TCU, which came in averaging 15-plus fast-break points per game and ranking among the Big 12 leaders in turnovers forced and transition scoring, never fully turned the game into the up-and-down track meet it prefers.

“They’re a good defensive team because of their size,” Dixon said. “We had some open looks that didn’t go down, we missed free throws, and if you go 4-for-21 from three and 17-for-27 from the line on the road, you’re probably not going to win.”

“Back to UCF Basketball”

For Dawkins, the most encouraging part was that the Knights looked more like the group that has banked four Quad 1 wins, including home victories over Kansas and Texas Tech and road wins at Texas A&M and Colorado.

“I did see us get back to playing UCF Basketball,” Dawkins said. “Defend at a high level, be focused on what you have to do defensively, and offensively play for each other. If we do those two things, that’s UCF Basketball.”

Fulks echoed that sentiment, and admitted the team felt a different urgency after three straight losses.

“In the Big 12 you’ve got to have short-term memory,” he said. “We messed that one up versus West Virginia. We regrouped, we recovered and we responded versus TCU. We knew we couldn’t let this one slip away. We kind of played desperate and took advantage of them.”

Big 12 grind continues

The win doesn’t give UCF much breathing room in a league where almost everyone is still jockeying for seeding — both in Kansas City and in March.

Houston, Arizona, Iowa State and Kansas remain stacked at the top, while BYU, Texas Tech, West Virginia, UCF, TCU and Cincinnati are all clustered in the middle portion of the standings with five conference games to play.

Historically, every Big 12 team to finish above .500 in league play has heard its name called on Selection Sunday, a fact not lost on a UCF group that entered the week in the 40s and 50s in most metrics and bracket projections.

Stillwell says the focus now is simple.

“Block out all the ears and mouths on the outside,” he said. “Like coach says, we’re all we got, we’re all we need. Just focus on going 1-0.”

Dawkins isn’t interested in letting his team look beyond the next trip — a long swing west to face Utah on Saturday, followed by BYU next Tuesday.

“We’re a long way from done,” Dawkins said. “We’ve got five more league games to go, every one against a very good team playing with desperation. Our guys should enjoy this tonight, but tomorrow it’s a reset and we start preparing for our next opponent.”