UCF coach Johnny Dawkins gives updates on John Bol and Carmelo Pacheco
The UCF Knights are still celebrating Sunday's big victory against the Cincinnati Bearcats.
The win was sealed with Themus Fulks hitting the winning floater with 13 seconds left. The Knights improved to 13-2 overall and 2-1 in Big 12 play. The lone loss is to the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
But not everything was positive. Coach Johnny Dawkins provided a couple injury updates in the postgame.
John Bol left the game with an undisclosed injury.
"No update as of yet," Dawkins said. "I'm sure he's probably with the trainer and we're seeing how he's going to do, but you know, John's tough. He's a competitor. I know he wants to be out there, so, you know, hopefully he can continue to recover, prior to our next game."
Dawkins also explained why Carmelo Pacheco did not play.
"He was sick," Dawkins said. "He had a bug. You know, we've had some guys, whether it's flu or different type of bugs that have been going around. I wasn't sure if he would be able to go. He wasn't sure. He's feeling better, but you know, through the warm-ups and stuff this morning. You could tell, you know, maybe he's not quite there yet and so, it's better to make sure we're safe and the young man is healthy than to try to put him out there because they wanna be out there, but you don't want someone to get out there and they're not right, it's too dangerous."
Here's more on the game from UCFRoundtable beat writer Matthew Feldman:
UCF (13-2, 2-1 Big 12) escaped Sunday evening with a 73-72 win against Cincinnati thanks to a Themus Fulks go-ahead floater with just 13 seconds remaining. Fulks, the Knights' senior guard, caught a pass on the left wing from senior guard Riley Kugel and attacked left, pulling up for a fifteen-footer and swishing it through.
Following a Cincinnati timeout, the Knights managed to get a stop, forcing a miss on a Jalen Celestine 3-pointer. Fulks scored only six points, but added a game-high 12 assists. He came into the game second in the Big 12 in dimes, averaging 6.6 per game.
UCF was able to fend off a strong outing from former Knight big man Moustapha Thiam. Thiam scored a career-high 24 points, shooting an efficient 67% from the field. He did so through frequent boos and jeers from the UCF crowd, who are still feeling the effects of his departure from the program in the offseason.
Kugel, UCF's leading scorer, led the way with 19 points adding 6 assists and five rebounds. He also made two three balls, a promising sign for Kugel who has struggled from range after a scorching hot start.
Kugel was the beneficiary of a balanced scoring effort from UCF, who had eight players score in the first half alone while four scored 10 or more. Junior guard Chris Johnson was one of them, playing big minutes down the stretch and scoring double-digits for the first time since Dec. 20th against FGCU.
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of UCFRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com