University of Tulsa
UCF
Golden Hurricane Fall Short Against UCF
2/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2007
Box Score
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Lavell Payne scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to help Central Florida hold off a furious second-half Tulsa rally and win 63-53 on Saturday.
UCF (16-6, 5-3 Conference USA) blew an 11-point second-half lead but avoided its second straight home loss by outscoring Tulsa 7-1 down the stretch. Josh Pepper's conventional three-point play doubled the Golden Knights' lead to six with 2:58 remaining, propelling UCF to victory.
UCF went without a field goal for 9:59 during the second half, but never lost the lead. Jermaine Taylor and Dave Noel had 11 points each for the Golden Knights.
Charles Ramsdell led the Golden Hurricane (14-7, 4-4) with 14 points. Ray Reese had 13 points and a team-high six rebounds for Tulsa.
Tulsa tied the score 44-44 at the 8:20 mark of the second half on a three-pointer by Ramsdell. UCF would go on to outscore the Hurricane 19-9 over the final eight minutes. Ramsdell scored 11 of Tulsa's final 12 points.
Ramsdell cut the UCF lead to four points, 56-52, on two free throws, but as the shot clock wound down to the last few seconds, UCF's Taylor connected on an off-balance three pointer from 23-feet to move the Golden Knights lead to seven points with 1:26 remaining, nearly ending any hopes for a Tulsa comeback victory.
For the game, Tulsa shot ust 30-percent, while UCF had a .489 shooting percentage. Tulsa's top two scorers, Rod Earls and Ben Uzoh averaging over 22 points between them, combined for only seven points against the Knights.
UCF led by as many as six through the first 10 minutes, but Tulsa cut its deficit to 18-17 on a pair of free throws by Darold Crow with 10:16 remaining in the first half.
The Golden Hurricane, however, went scoreless over the next five minutes, allowing the Golden Knights to extend their lead to 30-17. Tulsa went without a field goal for almost 10 minutes, but managed to trim the UCF lead to 32-24 at halftime.
The Golden Hurricane shot 28 percent from the floor in the first half, while UCF hit 56 percent.
Tulsa returns to the Donald W. Reynolds Center this Wednesday night to host the Marshall Thundering Herd. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
