In his second stint at UCF, Dior Johnson scored a game-high 41 points, including four late in overtime, as the Knights opened their season with a wild 96-95 win over Florida Gulf Coast on Monday night in Orlando, Fla.
Tied at 82, Lewis Walker (who finished with 16 points) and Arturo Dean (15) made layups, and Johnson canned a 3-pointer for a 7-0 UCF run to start overtime, but Bryson Lucas later tied it at 90 for Florida Gulf Coast with 1:59 left.
Johnson, who averaged 24 points a game at Tarleton State last season, made a layup and two free throws to give UCF a 96-92 lead, but Florida Gulf Coast’s Chase Konieczny, who forced overtime at the buzzer with a layup, made a 3-pointer with five seconds left to cut his team’s deficit to 96-95. After a missed free throw, Lucas’ desperation 90-footer hit the side of the rim.
The Knights let a late regulation lead get away and squandered the early overtime lead.
Florida Gulf Coast, a Fort Myers area school located in Estero, traveled to Orlando and gave UCF all it could handle in the first 20 minutes as the ASUN squad led by a bucket.
Lucas tallied 25 points and 10 rebounds for Florida Gulf Coast, and Justin Houser had 20 points and six boards. Konieczny and Darren Williams had 15 points apiece.
The Knights recorded their first points of the season via 7-foot-2 John Bol on a short bank shot, and the home side moved up 8-2 on Cayden Vasko’s layup.
Houser sank a pair of free throws to make the score 32-29 inside the final four minutes of the first half, and Williams drained his fourth long-range shot to tie the score at 32. Turk Brown’s two from the stripe was part of a 9-0 run that put Florida Gulf Coast up 34-32.
Walker and Johnson each produced two points in the final minute as UCF trailed 38-36 at the break.
In a fast second-half start, Williams and Johnson traded 3s in the first minute, but it was the latter who brought UCF to life. Johnson scored 15 points in the first six minutes for a 54-49 lead.
Johnson and his teammates went on to lead 61-49, but Houser and Lucas drained treys as the Eagles weathered the storm. They rallied to tie it at 71-all with 6:04 left.
BB Washington, who had open heart surgery and missed last season, made three free throws, and Konieczny later forced overtime with a layup as time expired.