UCF drops fourth straight game with 24-point loss to Temple

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Danny Morales / Valencia Voice

Daiquan Walker scored 14 points as he started in place of injured point guard B.J. Taylor.

ORLANDO — UCF missed leading scorer B.J. Taylor (concussion) as the Knights just couldn’t score as they fell to the Temple Owls 86-62 on Wednesday at the CFE Arena.

The Knights started Daiquan Walker in place of Taylor, but his 14 points weren’t enough against the high-powered Owls offense.

Brandon Goodwin led UCF with 17 points and four assists. Goodwin and Walker combined for half of the Knights total points.

“I feel like we didn’t play our hardest at all,” said Goodwin. “But we went into the locker room and hoora about how we wanted to get better, but  I feel we just didn’t show up at all tonight.”

UCF went into halftime trailing Temple 37-18 after the Knights shot 29.2 percent from the floor during the opening 20 minutes. The Knights turned the ball over seven time during the first half, leading to 10 Temple points.

The Owls went 6-13 from behind the three-point line during the opening half and shot 41.9 percent from the field. Temple finished the game shooting 10-18 from behind the arc and 50.8 percent from the floor.

“Our defense definitely wasn’t where it needed to be,” said Jones. “And when you’re struggling to score on one end it usually affects you on the other.”

UCF cut the lead to 25 points with 4:44 left in the game, but the Owls came back with a strong run of their own and kept adding to their lead in the second half.

“Disappointing effort tonight,” said UCF head coach Donnie Jones following the loss. “We’ve competed pretty much every game night in and night out but for some reason we were out of sync, could not get ourselves going and we played like a really tired basketball team tonight.”

Temple extended their lead to as much as 36 points during the second half as the Owls continued to dominate the Knights down low, outscoring UCF 44-22 in the paint.

“I’m not trying to see anything like that, this is my senior year, I’m not having that, there’s no more of that,” said Myles Davis following the loss. “You’re going to see a new UCF team, you’ve got to.”

Turnovers hurt the Knights against Temple as UCF coughed up the ball 16 times, leading to 21 points by the Owls.

The Knights could be without Taylor for at least one more game, as he’s showing improvement but still hasn’t passed a concussion test. UCF will need all the offense they can get in their next game when they take on SMU, who is currently second in the conference.

“Of course we needed BJ tonight,” said Goodwin. “But we just don’t come out with any energy and it shows during warm ups, it shows before the game,

“We just got to get it right off the court first before we get on the court and it shows.”

With the loss UCF’s losing streak is extended to four games and things won’t get any easier for the Knights as they go to SMU to face the Larry Brown coached Mustangs on Saturday, Jan. 31.

“I feel like going off on the road is going to gives us no choice but to have to play together at that point,” said Davis. “We had the fans tonight, we had the Knightmare out there and we still played the way we did, if we go out there on the road and we’re together I see ourselves having to come together a little bit more,

“It’s not just going to be a hoora, it’s going to be a real team change, it’s got to be.”