UCF basketball takeaways: OK State snaps Knights' 11-game win streak
UCF 's first men's basketball game as an AP Top 25 team in six years proved its worst of the 2025-26 campaign to date.
Parsa Fallah led all scorers with 24 points, and Kanye Clary nearly produced a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as Oklahoma State (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) toppled the Knights 87-76 on Tuesday, Jan. 6, at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
UCF (12-2, 1-1) trailed for more than 35 minutes as its 11-game winning streak came to an end. Riley Kugel had the high mark with 15 points for the Knights, who shot 37.5% as a team and committed 11 turnovers — nearly double the amount they had in Saturday's win over Kansas .
Here are three takeaways from a forgettable night on the road.
Oklahoma State neutralizes UCF's strengths for stretches
Oklahoma State neutralized two of UCF's key traits in opposite halves: 3-point shooting efficiency and offensive rebounding.
The Knights hit on just 1 of their 14 attempts from 3-point range in the first half, a bucket from George Beale Jr. with 7:30 on the clock. Beale would hit another pair of 3s on consecutive trips down the floor in the second half, pulling UCF within a three-point deficit.
However, in the final 20 minutes, the Knights could not control the glass and generate second-chance opportunities. Oklahoma State maintained a 19-17 overall rebounding advantage, conceding just four offensive boards to the Knights — compared to nine in the first half.
Factoring games through Jan. 4, UCF ranked sixth in the nation in offensive rebound percentage (39.9%), 21st in rebounding margin (plus-9.5) and 14th in 3-point shooting (39%).
Jordan Burks, who hit the go-ahead 3-ball against Kansas, had a particularly tough evening. The 6-foot-9 junior wing misfired on all 11 field goal attempts and tallied just three points.
UCF squanders surge in early stages of 2nd half
The Knights appeared to shake off their struggles by scoring 18 of the first 28 points after halftime, pulling within 51-50. Devan Cambridge had the first five points on his own, and Themus Fulks and Jamichael Stillwell played off one another to create open looks against the Big 12's last-ranked defense.
Oklahoma State settled back in after the flurry, going ahead 56-50 on a driving layup by Clary and a putback by Fallah, plus a foul. UCF could stay within a single possession of the Cowboys just twice over the final 14½ minutes.
Clary continued to gash the Knights going at the basket, and leading scorer Anthony Roy provided the exclamation point with his fourth 3-pointer of the night to go up 12 with 1:28 left. Oklahoma State made 10 of its 19 shots from beyond the arc.
Former UCF center Moustapha Thiam, Cincinnati up next
Longtime rival Cincinnati returns to Orlando on Sunday, and there's an extra element of spice in this year's meeting.
Moustapha Thiam , UCF's highest-ranked recruit in program history, followed assistant coach Mamadou N'Diaye and joined the Bearcats via the transfer portal last April. The 7-foot-2 Senegal native started 34 games as a reclassified true freshman and looked the part of a program cornerstone. He averaged 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game and blocked 88 shots.
Knights fans certainly will not forget Thiam's defection, even if the players don't hold a similar grudge. Only two players on UCF's active roster — reserves Elijah Hulsewe and Poohpha Warakulnukroh — were teammates with Thiam.
Cincinnati's got plenty of talent, including returning guards Day Day Thomas and Jizzle James, Baylor transfer Jalen Celestine and freshman shooting guard Shon Abaev, but its results have not eased the pressure on head coach Wes Miller. The Bearcats fell to 8-7 overall, and 0-2 in the Big 12, on Tuesday with a 62-60 loss at West Virginia.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: UCF Knights basketball: 3 takeaways in loss to Oklahoma State
