KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Keyshawn Hall scored 23 points to lead four UCF players in double-figures scoring, and the No. 14 seed Knights used a big run out of halftime to bury No. 11 seed Utah 87-72 in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday night.
Darius Johnson added 20 points, Jordan Ivy-Curry had 15 and Moustapha Thiam finished with 14 for the Knights (17-15), who face sixth-seeded Kansas on Wednesday night as they try to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.
Utah (16-16) opened the game with a 21-9 run, but the Knights slowly chipped away at the deficit, and Hall’s 3-pointer got them within 40-39 at halftime. He had six more points during a 24-3 run to start the second half, giving the Knights a 63-43 lead with just under 13 minutes to go that carried them to the finish.
Keanu Dawes had 21 points to lead the Utes, who also lost to UCF on Feb. 23, the day before coach Craig Smith was fired.
Josh Eilert, who led West Virginia at the Big 12 Tournament as an interim coach last year, did the same for the Utes on Tuesday night. The school already has announced the hiring of Alex Jensen, one of the stars of their 1998 Final Four team and an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks, to be their new head coach once the season has concluded.
Takeaways
UCF won thanks to some brilliant guard play, but its lack of production in the paint could be troublesome, especially with 7-foot-1 center Hunter Dickinson and the rest of the Jayhawks waiting in the next round.
Utah simply couldn’t overcome its second-half start, which at one point included 10 consecutive missed field-goal attempts.
Key moment
Hall’s 3-pointer that sent UCF into halftime with all the momentum.
Key stats
Utah was 4 of 26 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Up next
The Knights play Kansas on Wednesday night. They lost to the Jayhawks twice in the regular season.
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