UCF’s three-game win streak snapped by struggling Baylor

March Madness was in full effect Saturday night.

A near sellout crowd was on hand to show its support for red-hot UCF, which was riding a three-game winning streak that included a road sweep of Utah and No. 19 BYU. Unfortunately, fans went home disappointed as UCF fell short after trailing by as many as 15 points before eventually losing to Bayor, 87-86.

The Knights tied the game at 86 with 25 seconds left, but guard Riley Kugel was called for a foul as Baylor’s Obi Agbim attempted a 3-point shot with 1.3 seconds left. Agbim missed the first free throw, made the second and missed the third, but it bounced away as time expired.

“I just wanted to make sure we had basically a helmet on the helmet, which means everybody had a man, so no one was free and we were going to just guard as hard as we could the guy that was in front of us,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “Unfortunately, we picked up the foul and the young man made a free throw and then he ran the clock out by throwing it off the rim.”

“It was a petty foul, but it’s a part of the game. It’s basketball,”  UCF forward Jamichael Stillwell said.

Kugel scored a team-high 26 points in his return to the lineup after missing the past two games with an undisclosed lower leg injury.

UCF (20-8, 9-7 Big 12) had its three-game winning streak snapped with the loss, as the Knights dropped to 13-4 at Addition Financial Arena this season.

Baylor (15-14, 5-11 Big 12) won just its third game in February and the third road contest this season. The Bears are hoping to avoid their worst season since the 2006-07 campaign.

The Knights opened the game with solid defense, holding Baylor to just 33% (3-of-9) shooting from the floor through the first seven minutes.

The Bears snapped out of their early funk, going on a 20-9 run to grab a 32-26 advantage with 7 minutes left in the first half.

During that run, UCF lost center Jeremy Foumena, who rolled his ankle on a missed layup and was helped off the floor and back into the locker room by the training staff. He never returned.

Dawkins didn’t have an update on Foumena’s status following the game.

“I haven’t spoken to the trainer exactly about what’s going on with him, other than he took a tough fall, and we’ll see,” he said.

Foumena’s absence was particularly painful after Stillwell and John Bol picked up two fouls and were forced to ride the bench for the final six minutes of the half. The absence of Stillwell and Bol opened the door for reserve Elijah Hulsewe to see his first significant minutes since the team played Mercer on Dec. 17.

The Knights, however, had no answer for redshirt sophomore guard Cameron Carr, who connected on four early 3-pointers and led the Bayor with 20 points in the first half.

Carr helped fuel the Bears, who went on a 24-12 run over the final six minutes, cruising to a 56-42 halftime advantage.

UCF opened the second half with a 6-0 run to cut the Baylor lead to 56-48, forcing the Bears to take a quick timeout with 17:53 left in the game.

An offensive rebound and bucket by Bol made it an 8-0 run by the Knights and a layup by Jordan Burks made it 10-0, sending the announced crowd of 8,735 into a frenzy.

Baylor didn’t score its first points of the second half until the 15:59 mark.

The Knights would go on a 16-4 run, closing the gap to 60-58 heading into the first media timeout with 13:55.

Bol picked up his third foul with 13:18 left in the game, but Dawkins rolled the dice and left his big man on the court.

“He was doing a lot of good things for us and we missed him in the first half,” Dawkins said of his decision to leave the sophomore on the court. “He did a good job of maybe changing some shots, getting some rebounds that maybe we wouldn’t have gotten with him out of the game.”

Bol finished with 7 points, 7 rebounds, while tying a season high with 5 blocked shots.

Stillwell picked up his third foul less than a minute later and was replaced by Devan Cambridge.

Baylor went on another run to push its lead back to double-digits at 76-65 with 7:27 left.

But UCF wouldn’t go away, chipping away until the BU lead was 80-78 with 4:10 remaining before the final media timeout. But after a Baylor basket, Bol picked up his fourth foul on the next possession and left the game.

UCF tied the game at 84 with 1:03 before an Agbim basket gave Baylor an 86-84 advantage. On the Knights’ next possession, Cambridge tied the game at 86 with 25 seconds left thanks to a pair of free throws. That set up the Bears’ final possession.

Carr led four BU players in double-digits with 26 points, followed by Dan Skillings with 15, Isaac Williams IV with 14 and Agbim with 12.

Burks added 12 points while Stillwell had 11 for UCF. Themus Fulks had 8 points and 10 assists.

UCF wraps up its home schedule by hosting Oklahoma State on Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN+). The Knights finish the regular season at West Virginia on March 6 (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network).

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.