Riley Kugel scored 19 points for host UCF, which held off upset-minded Hofstra to earn an 82-78 win in the season opener for both schools Monday night in Orlando, Fla.
Jordan Burks had 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds for UCF, which didn’t return anyone who scored for the team last season. Kugel transferred to the Knights from Mississippi State while Burks arrived from Georgetown.
Themus Fulks, a transfer from Milwaukee, added 16 points with eight assists and hit the tiebreaking long 2-pointer that gave the Knights the lead for good at 66-64 with 7:38 left.
Another Milwaukee transfer, Jamichael Stillwell, finished with 10 points.
The Knights were 22 of 36 from the foul line, including 17 of 23 in the second half.
Cruz Davis scored 17 points while true freshman Preston Edmead had 16 points and a team-high six assists for Hofstra, a member of the Coastal Athletic Association.
German Plotnikov finished with 13 points for the Pride. Silas Sunday added 10 points and six rebounds.
Hofstra took a 16-7 lead to open the game before UCF went on a 29-11 run to take its biggest lead at 36-27.
The Pride scored the final five points of the first half to begin a 30-18 run that ended with Joshua DeCady’s layup and Edmead’s free throw to put the visitors ahead 57-54 with 10:47 to go.
UCF scored 10 of the next 14 points before Edmead tied the game for the final time with a 3-pointer with 8:10 left. The Knights expanded their lead to eight points twice, the last at 79-71, before Hofstra got within three points twice in the final minute.
UCF’s Devan Cambridge missed a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left, but Burks pulled down the rebound and Fulks iced the win by sinking his second free throw six seconds later.
–Field Level Media
