UCF starts slowly, but still puts away Lipscomb easily

Darius Johnson led the way with 19 points as UCF took command midway in the first half and cruised to a 72-57 victory over visiting Lipscomb on Saturday afternoon in Orlando, Fla.

Jaylin Sellers added 16 points and Marchelus Avery 12 for the Knights (5-2).

Derrin Boyd scored 22 points and AJ McGinnis followed with 14 for the Bisons (6-4), who entered with six wins in their last seven games.

Cold shooting and turnovers doomed the Bisons. They shot 38.5 percent from the field and had 20 turnovers. UCF shot 40.3 percent and committed 16 turnovers. The Knights also enjoyed a 44-31 rebounding advantage, including 14-4 on the offensive end that led to an 11-0 difference in second-chance points.

The Knights needed just over a minute to increase a 16-point halftime lead to 18, 43-25, and kept their cushion in double-digits for all but 23 seconds in the second half when the Bisons went on a 12-2 run to close to within 48-40 with 14:12 remaining.

UCF then scored the next seven points to get its lead back up to 55-40 and never let the visitors closer than 12 points the rest of the way.

After a stumbling 1-of-9 start from the field, the Knights came alive and went on a 21-5 surge to assume a 24-11 lead with 8:23 left in the first half.

The Bisons climbed back to within 24-17 on back-to-back 3-pointers by McGinnis and Will Pruitt, but then the Knights closed out the half on a 15-6 spurt, which including an 8-0 run, for a 39-23 lead at the break.

After its cold start, the Knights finished the first half 16-of-37 from the field (43.2 percent) but the Bisons never could get things going. They were 7-of-25 (28.0 percent) overall, 5-of-15 on 3-pointers, and 4-of-10 from the free- throw line over the first 20 minutes. They also had 10 turnovers to UCF's six.

—Field Level Media