{"id":76637,"date":"2017-03-17T14:16:33","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T18:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=76637"},"modified":"2024-02-09T11:54:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:54:02","slug":"ucf-mens-basketball-earns-first-nit-tournament-win-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-mens-basketball-earns-first-nit-tournament-win-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Men’s Basketball Earns First NIT Tournament Win Over Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"
With its 79-74 victory over visiting Colorado Wednesday night at CFE Arena, the Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ men’s basketball team earned its first ever win in the National Invitation Tournament and advanced to the second round to take on No. 1 seed Illinois State.<\/p>\n
The fourth-seeded Knights (22-11) will play at Illinois State Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.<\/p>\n
“We are fortunate to get the win and are excited about moving on,” Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ head coach Johnny Dawkins said after the game. “I was really proud of our guys’ overall play. I thought that was one of our best offensive performances. Usually, we hang our hat on defense, but today, I thought our offense carried us. It could not have been a better time\u00a0because we needed all the points we scored tonight.”<\/p>\n
Dawkins, who in his first season at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ has matched the program’s most wins in a season in over a decade, has had plenty of success in the NIT as a head coach. The former Stanford head coach was 9-1 in the tournament coming into Wednesday’s contest, winning both the 2012 and 2015 NITs.<\/p>\n
After hosting the first NIT game in Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ history, Dawkins improved his mark to 10-1 with the five-point win over the Buffaloes (19-15).<\/p>\n
“Tad [Boyle] does a great job with his group,” Dawkins said. \u00a0“I have played him and his team enough in the Pac-12 that they always play the right way. They always shoot the ball well. They are always tough defensively. He does a terrific job.”<\/p>\n
Colorado scored the first basket of the game, but after a baseline dunk by A.J. Davis gave Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ a 4-3 advantage less than three minutes into the game, the Buffaloes never led again.<\/p>\n
Matt Williams led Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ in the first half, scoring 13 of his 17 points in the first 20 minutes.\u00a0 The senior went 5-of-8 from the floor and a perfect 3-for-3 from long distance to give the Knights a 38-34 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
“We were all very excited getting this win,” Williams said. “We’ve worked hard this week trying to prepare for this win. We were just full of excitement, joy. We enjoyed it for the moment and then Coach let us know that we’ll be back in the gym tomorrow for practice.”<\/p>\n