Ucf 2/17 4:00 espn+

Last night, UCF came roaring back from 13 down at the half to fall 90-88 at BYU. The Knights gave up 51 in the 2nd half but hung a massive 62 on the Cougars. UCF shot 28-for-45 inside the arc. They aren't a great outside shooting team (6-for 22), although they were uncharacteristically hot in the first here a few weeks ago.

Darius Johnson led the Knights with 20, with Jaylin Seller adding in 17. In all, 10 of the 11 UCF players who saw action scored. Ibrahima Diallo, the Knights' big man, played 19 minutes, scoring a mere 2.

UCF forced 17 turnovers, 4 of them by Aly Khalifa. They committed only 9 themselves. BYU outrebounded them, 37-32, but the Knights grabbed 12 off the offensive glass.

The Knights beat KS, WV and OU at home, and split with BYU. Their final three games are a gauntlet: ISU, UH & @ TCU.
I'm usually hesitant to call any game a "must win", but this one certainly is. The Cats need 5 wins to get to 9-9. If they can win the three remaining home games (OSU, KSU & WV), they still need to win two more. That starts with UCF. The other three are far from cupcakes (@ TCU, @ UH, @ OU). If UC can manage the remaining home schedule and beat UCF again, maybe they can pull a single road upset down the stretch. [I don't hold out much hope of eking one out in Houston.]