Center Jermey Foumena powered UCF Men’s Basketball past Quinnipiac in the second half after recording a new career high on Tuesday at home.
Entering the season, Foumena scored just 17 total points but surpassed
that tonight recording 18 points to go along with seven rebounds on 72% shooting. He led UCF’s second unit that matched a season high in bench points with 45, compared to the Bobcats’ 15.
“The way I came prepared into this game is, I came with the mentality to just kill and I always come like that but I just said to myself like just play hard and just get lost in the fight basically. Get lost in the fight and you’ll see what happens, and that’s what I did,” Foumena said.
It was a tale of two halves for the Knights. UCF trailed by five at halftime after allowing eight threes in the first half. Forward Jordan Burks scored 13 and grabbed three rebounds for his fourth double digit socring effort this season.
“The first half, we kind of came out flat so second half coach told us we need to dig in and get stops, get kills; that’s what it’s all about is getting kills getting stops and we score off of our defense that’s what he said like our defense is what’s going to make our offense that’s our identity is defense,” Burks said.
When the Knights needed to cut into the Bulldogs’ lead, it was the front court who lead the way. Foumena scored 10 of his 18 in the second half and Center John Bol scored all 13 of his points in the period.
The effort from UCF’s bigs led to a dominating performance inside, recording 54 points in the paint. The Knights combined offensively for 102 points as a team, which is the first time UCF has surpassed the century mark this season.
The Knights will get a couple days of rest through Thanksgiving before taking on VMI at home on Saturday at 1 p.m.
