UCF Basketball Drops Another vs. No. 16 Ole Miss

The Knights got out to another slow start on the road against Ole Miss Tuesday night, falling behind 19-4 just four minutes into the game, after the Rebels made their first five three-point attempts.

Ole Miss continued to roll, beating the Knights by a final of 84-56.

UCF was coming off a devastating 61-51 loss to Jacksonville, in which the team shot just 33.3 percent from the field for the game. The Knights didn’t do much better against the Rebels, going 33.9 percent from the field and 0-for-11 from downtown.

Ole Miss countered with a hot shooting night from beyond the arc going 11-for-28 for the game. The Rebels also held a huge height advantage leading to 10 blocked shots for the team.

The Knights trailed by as many as 26 points at one point in the first half.

There were few, if any, bright spots for UCF in the game although freshman Marcus Jordan registered another solid performance against a quality opponent.

Jordan has played his best games this year against the toughest teams and had 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals in 29 minutes of action. Jordan was aggressive in getting to the line all game but made just half of his 10 free throw attempts.

A.J. Rompza also came out aggressive after a tough last game. He led the team with 16 points (12 in the first half) in the contest going 6-of-15 from the field for the game. He only had three assists, however, which was a testament to UCF’s shooting struggles as a team.

The Knights’ leading scorer, Isaac Sosa, didn’t have a field goal until there was seven minutes left in the game, finishing with only four points.

Orlando native Chris Warren countered Sosa’s first bucket with back-to-back threes as he scored 14 against his hometown team.

Keith Clanton and Dave Diakite, UCF’s best chance to counter Ole Miss’ size, both had tough nights.

Clanton was scoreless in the first half, but finished with eight points and seven rebounds, however, he also found the turnover bug again committing seven in the game.

Diakite again couldn’t stay on the floor much due to foul trouble and played just 16 minutes playing no impact in the game.

The Knights fall to 8-6 on the year with conference play looming right around the corner, in the form of a conference opener at home against Rice Jan. 9.

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Photo courtesy of www.ucfsports.com .