Clutch plays, bench points key American Athletic Conference victory

UH and UCF fought went back and forth all game, resulting in 14 ties, but the Cougars made the plays down the stretch that netted an important conference victory.

The Cougars’ depth helped push them to a 88-84 win at Hofheinz Pavilion on Saturday. Sophomore guard Jherrod Stiggers gave a spark off the bench, scoring 17 points while shooting 5-7 from the 3-point line, and senior forward J.J. Richardson scored eight points and four rebounds.

“ (This is) the most positive contribution that we have had off the bench. Not just because of point production with forty points, I’m talking about people contributing.” said head coach James Dickey.

With  less than three minutes left in the game the Cougars went to leading scorer junior forward TaShawn Thomas, who found  senior guard Brandon Morris and sophomore forward Danuel House for back-to-back 3s that put the game out of reach.

“We knew it was coming, it happens almost every game when they double up on TaShawn. We told TaShawn just let the game come to you and look out because you got numbers,” Stiggers said.

At half-time the score was tied at 42. The Cougars shot 51 percent from the field and 57 percent from the 3-point line, while causing the Knights to turn the ball over eleven times.

UH improved to 13-14 and 5-9 in the American Conference. The Cougars had lost close back-to-back games on the road where they had competed well but couldn’t earn a victory.The Cougars scored twenty four points off of sixteen UCF turnovers. It was one of the keys to victory.

“ We needed a win and it was a good win for us. Basically we have to stick with what we do, boxing out, running the offense and we will be fine,” Richardson said.

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