By Henry Rawn

4 3 2025

LAS VEGAS — UCF broke a tight battle with a 10-0 run to lead by nine with 2:36 left, ending Cincinnati’s season in an 88-80 defeat in the College Basketball Crown quarterfinals on Thursday night.

Cincinnati finished the season 19-16 and had won five-straight against UCF, all in regular-season play. This one featured 14 lead changes and eight ties.

Darius Johnson led the Knights with 31 points, including eight points of that game-breaking run, with his final two on an uncontested layup before the buzzer.

Day Day Thomas led UC with 19 points, including a season-high five 3-pointers on nine attempts. Dillon Mitchell followed with 17, picking up where he left off from his team-high 15 points against DePaul on Tuesday. It was his best two-game scoring stretch of the season.

The Knights gained their then-largest lead at 54-46 with 13:15 left, but six-straight UC points over a minute stretch (Rayvon Griffith pull-up, Dan Skillings alley-oop dunk from Simas Lukosius, Thomas pull-up) forced a timeout with at 11:59.

Back-to-back treys from the wing, the first for Josh Reed’s first points of the game and the second from Thomas and a couple of steps further, put UC ahead 60-58 at 10:15, its first lead in six minutes.

Griffith scored six points, including getting six foul shot attempts over a 44-second span, over seven minutes in the first half. His eight for the game matched his season-high set in the opener.

Mitchell was in on the action early with a pull-up jumper, driving dunk after Skillings’ mid-court pass interception, and then a triple from the wing.

After UCF took a 38-35 lead into the break, Mitchell scored the Bearcats’ first six points of the second.

COURTESY UC SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS