Dec. 30, 2006

Box Score

ORLANDO, FL - The University of Central Florida took command from the outset, but New Jersey Institute of Technology fought hard for 40 minutes and the result was a 75-63 win for the host team in the UCF Holiday Classic men's basketball tournament opening round Friday night.

UCF, which is 9-2 on the season and earned the 300th career victory for its coach, Kirk Speraw, in the win over NJIT, will meet Texas-Pan American in Saturday's championship game. The Highlanders third-place game foe will be James Madison, a 70-57 loser in Friday's other game. The NJIT-JMU tilt will start at 5 pm on Saturday.

NJIT had three double-figure scorers, topped by senior guard Clayton Barker's game-high 19 points. Kraig Peters finished with 14 points and Courcy Magnus came off the Highlanders bench for 11 points, including 3-for-3 on three-point tries.

UCF, which shot 11-for-20 on three-pointers as a team got terrific games from its starting guards, Mike O'Donnell and Dave Noel. O'Donnell, a deadly long-range shooter, led the Golden Knights with 18 points, plus 7 assists and no turnovers in 30 minutes. Noel, a powerful 6-foot-3 guard, harassed the NJIT guards on defense, while posting 10 points and a game-high 8 assists on offense.

Up front, forward Josh Peppers added 17 points for UCF. He made three three-pointers--one less than O'Donnell, who shot 4-for-8 on threes.

Kenrick Zondervan led UCF with a game-high 8 rebounds. NJIT's top rebounders, with 7 apiece, were Dan Stonkus and Nesho Milosevic. Barker had 4 assists and shared the team steals lead, at two each, with Peters and Milosevic.

The Golden Knights started strong, taking a 10-2 lead in the first 3:20 and reaching the 20-point mark just 6:02 into the game. UCF took what would be its biggest lead of the half--18 points, at 34-16 on an O'Donnell foul shot with 4:44 left in the half.

Barker, the senior guard, was instrumental in keeping his team afloat, meeting the challenge by scoring 15 of his team's 25 first-half points, throwing caution to the wind with a series of darting drives that frequently ended with the smallest man on the floor being knocked down as the ball trickled through the net.

Down at the half, 40-25, against a talented, aggressive team, the Highlanders actually outscored UCF, 38-35 over the final 20 minutes.

With Peters getting 11 of his 14 points in the second half and Magnus adding eight, the Highlanders never really made the Golden Knights uneasy, but NJIT continued to earn respect, getting as close as nine points, 54-45, on Mike Manning's back door layup off a laser feed from Andrew Engel with 11:12 remaining.

UCF removed any doubts with a 16-5 run over the next 4:48, taking its biggest lead, 70-50, on a Peppers three-pointer with 6:24 left.

Refusing to roll over, NJIT outscored the hosts, 13-5, the rest of the way and eventually lost by 12 to an explosive team that had earlier winning margins of 35, 44 and 37 points in games this season.