UCF stumbles in second-half against West Virginia, drops third straight

A Valentine’s Day showdown at Addition Financial Arena was supposed to help UCF feel the love again after a recent two-game slide. Instead, the Knights had their hearts broken as West Virginia rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to pull out a 74-67 win on Saturday.

The loss was painful not only because it was the third in a row, but it put the Knights’ postseason hopes in peril. The team was projected to earn an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time since the 2018-19 season, but those hopes are starting to evaporate.

West Virginia (16-9, 7-5 Big 12) went on a 28-13 run over the final 8 minutes to pull away with the win.

UCF (17-7, 6-6 Big 12) opened the second half on a 22-9 run to build up a double-digit advantage, but struggled to find an answer for the Mountaineers. The Knights continued their February swoon, falling to 5-13 overall in the month since joining the Big 12 two seasons ago.

“We didn’t execute,” said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins. “Coming down the stretch, you give them a lot of credit; that’s how they won a lot of their basketball games. We knew going in that we had to stay focused, but we didn’t sustain it. We didn’t sustain it in the second half as needed.”

Honor Huff led WVU with 21 points, while Jasper Floyd had 17 and Chance Moore had 12.

Themus Fulks led UCF with 19 points, while Riley Kugel had 13 and Jordan Burks and Chris Johnson had 10 apiece.

After struggling to get off to fast starts in losses to Houston and Cincinnati, Kugel’s 30-footer to open play seemed like the right step for the Knights. But four early turnovers  — three by point guard Fulks — over the first four minutes limited the damage against West Virginia.

UCF missed six of its next seven shots before a Fulks’ layup and foul, which helped the Knights retake the lead at 10-8 with 12:58 left in the half.

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UCF guard Riley Kugel (middle) drives through West Virginia defenders Amir Jenkins (left) and Morris Ugusuk (right) during the West Virginia at UCF college basketball game in Orlando on Saturday, February 14, 2026. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

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West Virginia, however, would storm back to re retake the lead, connecting on four of their next six shots to build an 18-15 advantage with 7:45 left. The Mountaineers relied on their size, scoring 14 of their 18 points in the paint.

UCF would go on a 7-0 run late in the first half, fueled in part by Bol, who scored 4 points and blocked 2 shots in a three-minute period. The Knights built their largest lead at 29-24, but went scoreless for the final 2:22, allowing WVU to cut the advantage to 29-28 at the half.

UCF started the second half with a 7-2 run as Kugel had a hand in all of the Knights’ points, scoring 5 and assisting on a Jordan Burks’ layup, forcing West Virginia to use a quick timeout.

Burks’ 3-pointer stretched the lead to its largest of the game at 39-30.

Back-to-back baskets by Fulks and a 3-point play by Devan Cambridge pushed the lead to 45-35 with 14:35 left.

After UCF built a 14-point lead at 52-38, West Virginia went on a 21-7 run to tie the game at 59 with 5 minutes left.

“This group’s been in these positions before and typically, we do a good job of not panicking,” said West Virginia coach Ross Hodge.

The Knights were without senior forward Jamichael Stillwell, who missed only his second game of the season.

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.