UCF basketball survives at buzzer, beats Cincinnati in Thiam's return

ORLANDO — UCF transfer Moustapha Thiam shrugged off a night's worth of boisterous boos in his anticipated return to Addition Financial Arena to score a career-high 24 points. But his former team got the last bucket, and the last laugh.

Themus Fulks knocked down a short jumper with 11.5 seconds left, and Cincinnati’s Jalen Celestine drew iron on a 3-pointer at the buzzer as the host Knights prevailed 73-72 against the Bearcats on Sunday, Jan. 11.

Riley Kugel paced the Knights (13-2, 2-1) with 19 points, Jamichael Stillwell had 15 and Fulks finished with 12 assists — the fourth time this year in which the fifth-year point guard dished out double digits.

UCF improved to 7-18 in its longstanding rivalry with Cincinnati (8-8, 0-3), its first regular-season win since 2022. The Knights also defeated Cincinnati 88-80 last April during the inaugural College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.

"Big 12 basketball at its best. Every single night, it's a fight," UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. "We beat a very good basketball team, a team that could easily be 3-0 (in league play). I'm proud of our guys for the effort they showed, how hard they played and definitely for the poise they had coming down the stretch of the basketball game."

The Knights exhaled when Celestine's potential game-winner rimmed out, and avoided losing back-to-back games since being ranked in the AP Top 25. They are likely to drop out of Monday's poll but still very much in control of their own destiny with regards to an NCAA Tournament bid.

As he shook his head at the postgame press conference, reserve guard Chris Johnson said, "Shoot, I was hoping it ain't go in. That's really what it was."

Here are three takeaways as the Knights rebounded ahead of another tricky road trip.

Moustapha Thiam handles hostility with career night

Thiam, a 7-foot-2 center from the Senegalese capital of Dakar, started 34 games for UCF in 2024-25 as a reclassified true freshman. He averaged 10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, the only freshman across the Power Four and the Big East with a 10/5/2.5 line.

Expected to be UCF's most impactful returner, he instead followed assistant coach Mamadou N'Diaye to Cincinnati.

Knights fans heckled Thiam whenever he touched the ball and whenever public address announcer Jeff Sharon spoke his name. And yet, he turned in a career offensive night, throwing down an early alley-oop and sinking 10 of his 15 field goal attempts.

"He's a terrific young man. For him to come into this environment and have probably his best performance of the year speaks volumes for how talented the young man is," Dawkins said. "We'd seen it every day in practice, so we saw his potential and what he's capable of doing."

Baba Miller made an impact in spite of some foul trouble, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds for the Bearcats. Orlando native Jizzle James, who rejoined the team last month, added 14 points.

Jeremy Foumena steps up with John Bol sidelined

John Bol toppled over Cincinnati's Halvine Dzellat as he traveled near the paint, and fell hard to the ground. He remained in the game, but checked out 49 seconds into the second half and did not return.

Jeremy Foumena filled the void down low to battle with Thiam, Miller and the rest of the Bearcats' bigs and made significant contributions to the Knights' win. He played a season-high 29:41, made 6 of 8 shots for 12 points and recorded eight rebounds.

Despite the absence of Bol, UCF won the battle on the boards 30-27 — albeit with an uncharacteristically low four offensive rebounds.

"Jeremy did a great job, when we dropped balls off to him or got the ball in the paint, of making his plays," Dawkins said.

Dawkins did not have an update on Bol's status following the game. He has started all 15 of UCF's contests to this point, but could be a question mark for the Jan. 14 visit to Kansas State (9-7, 0-3).

UCF 3-point specialist Carmelo Pacheco unavailable

One of UCF's most dangerous perimeter shooters, junior guard Carmelo Pacheco, missed Sunday's game due to illness, Dawkins said. He was listed as "out" on the final Big 12 player availability report, released 90 minutes prior to tipoff.

"He had a bug," Dawkins said. "Wasn't sure if he would be able to go. He was feeling better through the warmups and stuff this morning, but you could tell maybe he's not quite there yet."

Pacheco played just under 16 minutes in the Knights’ Jan. 6 loss at Oklahoma State, scoring three points on 1-of-3 shooting.

For the year, Pacheco is averaging 5.9 points and 1.9 rebounds per game while making 39% of his attempts from beyond the arc. He played a key role in UCF’s road win over Texas A&M with 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights basketball takeaways from win over Cincinnati Bearcats