Near the end of a season that has not gone as UCF hoped it would do, point guard Darium Johnson still served as a source of satisfaction for the team’s fans and coaches.
When he enters Wednesday night’s last home game against the BIG 12 conference opponent Oklahoma State in Orlando, Johnson is an average of 15.4 points, 4.2 assists and 2.2 steals per match. He leads the team in assists and steals.
“Just stand it out,” he said when asked about the key to his career. “I was not a child who was highly ranked who came out of high school and I could have transferred and gone somewhere else for other reasons but I believe in the staff here.
“I believe in coach (Johnny) Dawkins and everything he has done for me.”
Johnson delivered a team high 20 points and four assists Saturday in a loss of 89-78 at TCU. Golden Knights (15-14, 6-12) dragged 49-30 at half time, which turned out to be too large a hole to dig out during a lively comeback in the second half.
Leading goal scorers Keyshawn Hall (18.9 ppg) endure a miserable game at TCU, which made only 3 of 17 attempts from the field and ended with 14 points.
Oklahoma State (14-15, 6-12) also comes from a conference loss on the road and falls 71-61 to Baylor on Saturday night. Poor shooting and ball management made the cowboys when they hit only 19 out of 49 trials (38.8 percent) from the field, including 2 out of 14 on 3-pointers, and committed 18 sales.
It was far from their last match, a 74-68 upset by then no. 9 Iowa State who saw Oklahoma State playing to its strength and power 18 sales that led to 24 points.
“Just remained focused and stuck in the playing field,” said guard Arturo dean for that victory. “Kept focused for a full 40 minutes.”
Bryce Thompson leads Cowboy’s attack on 12.6 PPG, while Abou Ousmane adds 12.1, including 25 in victory over Iowa State.
Oklahoma State surpassed UCF 104-95 on February 19 in Stillwater, got 25 from Thompson and beat 28 out of 35 Foul Shots. Hall had 34 for UCF.
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