Thierno Sylla notched career highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead UCF to a 94-52 blowout victory over Jacksonville on Wednesday night in Orlando, Fla.
Jaylin Sellers added 16 points for the Knights (6-2), who never trailed in their third straight win over the Dolphins. Marchelus Avery poured in 12 points for UCF.
Jacksonville (6-3) was outmatched from the start, trailing by as many as 32 points in the first half. Robert McCray led the Dolphins with 12 points, while Marcus Niblack added nine.
UCF made 31 of 65 shots from the field (47.7 percent) and 15 of 33 3-pointers (45.5 percent). Jacksonville struggled throughout, making just 20 of 66 field-goal attempts (30.3 percent), including 4 of 20 treys (20 percent).
UCF jumped out to an early 19-2 lead, as Jacksonville missed its first 10 shots from the floor before McCray connected on the first Dolphins field goal at the 11:39 mark of the first half.
A Sylla 3-pointer pushed the Knights’ cushion to 38-10 with 4:54 remaining in the first half, UCF’s largest lead to that point.
Tyler Hendricks knocked down UCF’s sixth 3-pointer of the first half with 1:04 left to help give the Knights a 48-18 lead at the break. Sylla led the way with 15 points and eight rebounds, while Sellers added 12 first-half points. Jacksonville went just 6-for-27 from the field in the opening half and was led by McCray, who had seven points.
The Knights led by at least 28 for the entirety of the second half.
The Dolphins’ struggles against power-conference teams continued, as they fell to 0-3 against high majors this season following a 23-point loss to Xavier and a 51-point defeat at Pittsburgh.
Jacksonville’s second-leading scorer, Bryce Workman, left the game early in the first half due to a hand injury and did not return. He entered Wednesday averaging 13.9 points and 8.0 rebounds per game.
–Field Level Media