UCF Men's Basketball Shoots Past SMU 69-53

Behind a strong shooting performance, the ninth-seeded UCF men’s basketball team defeated No. 8 SMU, 69-53, in opening round action of the Conference USA Championship Wednesday at the BOK Center. UCF (15-16) will now meet top seed UTEP in the quarterfinals Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern.

The victory was the first for UCF at the league championship since 2006. Junior guard Taylor Young scored a team-high 15 points for UCF, and sophomore guard Isaac Sosa added 14 points.

UCF shot 54.2 percent overall for the game, and record23 assists on 26 made field goals.

The Knights opened the second half on a 9-2 run, getting four buckets from junior forward A.J. Tyler (Palm Harbor, Fla.) during the spurt, which gave UCF a nine-point advantage. UCF never trailed the rest of the way.

SMU concluded its season at 15-16 overall.

The Mustangs led by seven points six minutes into the game, but UCF stayed with the Mustangs, and eventually grabbed the lead, thanks to Sosa. He made three triples and scored 11 points before intermission, helping the Knights take a 32-30 edge into halftime.

Both teams shot over 50.0 percent in the opening half, with the Knights making 12-of-22 (54.5 percent) field goal attempts. The first 20 minutes went by quickly as just five total fouls were called.

The tournament is being held in Tulsa for the first time.

The UCF-UTEP contest will be televised live nationally on CBS College Sports.