Marcus Jordan leads UCF Knights past Connecticut Huskies 68-63: NCAA Basketball
Marcus Jordan had a breakthrough game with 20 points, including a pair of go-ahead free throws with 3:11 remaining, to help UCF Knights pull away late against Connecticut Huskies 68-63 on November 25, 2011 in the semi-finals of
the Battle 4 Atlantis. In doing so, the Knights snapped the Huskies' 16-game winning streak.
Marcus Jordan, the son of the iconic Michael Jordan, was losing his bout with nerves as he missed a two-pointer about three minutes to go in the game and the Knights trailing by 57-56. However, he immediately headed to the foul
line and hit 2 crucial free throws to put his team ahead by one.
Jordan also grabbed seven rebounds, dished out seven assists and ended on 6 for 6 shooting from free throw line. Keith Clanton also added 20 points on 4 for 5 shooting from three-point range, grabbed six rebounds and stole the
ball twice. Isaiah Sykes racked up 10 points, including two straight layups that pushed UCF’s lead to 62-57 late in the game, and grabbed four rebounds in the victory.
Jeremy Lamb once again led Connecticut with 15 points while forward guard Alex Oriakhi came off the bench with 14 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Andre Drummond chipped in 13 points, pulled down nine rebounds and blocked four
shots for the Huskies, who lost for the first time since March 5, 2011.
Connecticut took a ten-point lead, 29-19, early in the first half before the Knights responded and cut the margin to three, 29-26. However, the defending national champion reeled off a 12-3 run for a 38-29 lead at halftime.
Connecticut opened the second half on a 12-4 run, capped by Lam’s five-point spurt, to take a 50-33 lead with 16 remaining in the final buzzer. The Knights then punctuated 17 of the next 19 points of the game to trim Connecticut’s
lead to just two, 52-50, with 9:54 left. UCF responded aggressively and widened their lead to five, 57-52. The next couple of minutes were tightly fought as the Huskies managed to pull within 64-61 with 30 ticks to go.
However, Jordan and Tristan Spurlock hit a pair of free throws down the stretch to seal the huge victory.
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