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ECU Comeback Falls Short in 71-64 AAC Loss at UCF

J.J. Miles and East Carolina fall 71-64 at UCF for their fourth straight loss.
J.J. Miles and East Carolina fall 71-64 at UCF for their fourth straight loss.

ECU put themselves in a position to win late after falling behind by as much as 17 points at halftime, but several straight empty possessions down the stretch allowed UCF to hold on for a 71-64 victory Wednesday night at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando.

Darin Green, Jr. led the Knights with 18 points including four treys to go along with 12 points each from Brandon Mahan and Darius Perry to help UCF(4-6/2-6 AAC) snap a five game skid and pick up their eleventh straight win over ECU and eighth straight Pirate loss to the Knights in the Johnny Dawkins era in Orlando.

Jayden Gardner led ECU and all scorers with 23 points to go along with ten rebounds in 39 minutes of play to surpass the 1,300 career point mark making him the eighth player to do so in ECU history and 17th in AAC history. Ever improving Tremont Robinson-White added 18 points including three treys in the Pirates’ fourth straight loss.

With Joe Dooley convalescing at home under Covid-19 protocol, Steve Roccaforte held down the fort for ECU on the bench and gave his take on how things went after the game.

“I think our guys did a really good job of coming out and defending, especially in the half court. They tightened up the transition defense and they got us back in the game,” Roccaforte stated, “Once he (Jayden) got going, we wanted to play through him and not force anything and continue to see what he could do. A couple of times they switched a guard on him and we got some good cuts from other people and some good passes. He did a really good job and I thought our guys did a good job of playing through him.”

The Pirates jumped out to an early 12-7 lead in the first six minutes of the contest behind four early points from Jayden Gardner and three points each from Tristen Newton and Brandon Suggs.

A dunk from Jamille Reynolds gave UCF their first lead of the game at 14-13 midway into the half. While the Pirates went to sleep offensively, the Knights took advantage with a 38-12 run that gave UCF a 42-25 lead at halftime on six Knight treys including three bombs from Darin Green who had 11 points at the break.

ECU(7-5/1-4 AAC) made just 4 of 11 from the stripe and only 1 for 9 from the arc in the first twenty minutes of the contest.

“We got down 17 because we weren’t very good in transition defense. We were giving up second chance points, we weren’t boxing out and rebounding and we really didn’t get a lot of good shots,” said Roccaforte.

“We were shooting it on one pass or one side instead of getting into the second, third and fourth side so we tried to make some adjustments at halftime. We were concentrating on trying to shot fake and hit the next man and not take the shot on the first or second guy but get to the third or fourth guy and get open shots and I think we did a much better job of doing that in the second half.”

Green’s fourth trey of the game seemingly got UCF off to a quick start in the second half before a quick 9-4 ECU run got the Pirates back to within striking distance at 46-34 with 14:26 remaining.

Three straight ECU buckets from J.J. Miles and two straight Tremont Robinson-White treys helped trim the UCF lead to ten at 55-48. That was followed by a 9-2 ECU run cut the lead to just three at 62-59 on two straight Jayden Gardner baskets with 4:24 to go.

“Our communication was if you’re going to get back in the game, you’re going to have to do it on the defensive end. There’s no other way to do it. You’re not going to just go out there and outscore them after you’re down 17. You’re going to have to get multiple stops in a row, limit them to one shot and have great transition defense to give ourselves a chance,” Roccaforte said, “They you’ve got to take really good shots on offense. I thought our guys were really disciplined in doing that for long stretches in the second half.”

But timely empty late possessions from ECU and five quick UCF points found the Knight lead back at eight at 67-59 with 2:22 remaining and UCF was ultimately able to hold on for the win.

“It kind of happened in a hurry that we’re down three, shooting a one-and-one. We missed it, then we foul a three-point shooter in the corner and then the next possession we turned it over and that was three critical deals right at the end of the game,” said Roccaforte.

ECU reloads this Saturday at high noon in AAC play when the Pirates host Tulsa in Williams Arena on ESPN+.

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