Box Score UCF made twice as many free throws as West Virginia attempted to defeat the Mountaineers 72-59 Tuesday night at Addition Financial Arena in Orlando, Florida.
 
The Knights converted just one more field goal than the Mountaineers (22 to 21) but made a steady march to the foul line where they cashed in. UCF hit 21 of 25, compared to just 6 of 10 for WVU in a game that saw guard RaeQuan Battle's night end with 10:52 left when he was called for a double technical foul and was ejected from the game.
 
Battle, West Virginia's leading scorer, finished with just 5 points on 2 of 6 shooting. West Virginia coach Josh Eilert took a moment to give Battle a hug and some words of encouragement before he left the floor.
 
"He was frustrated, and I understand his frustration, but he handled it the wrong way and he knows it," Eilert said. "He popped off a couple of times and it warranted what they gave him. It's a teaching moment. I gave him a hug. I told him I love him and said we've got to fix this."
 
No starter scored more than Kerr Kriisa's 9 points and Josiah Harris came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points on five 3-point field goals to lead WVU.
 
UCF, which led by as many as 21 points near the midway point of the second half, never trailed after starting the game on an 8-0 run.
 
"When you dig that big of a hole, good luck trying to get out of it," Eilert said. "We got disconnected in so many ways offensively and defensively. We just weren't clicking on all cylinders and working well together out there."
 
The Knights outscored West Virginia 26 to 16 in the paint, 24 to 6 in fastbreak points and 18 to 5 off turnovers. UCF had a 45 to 34 advantage on the glass, made 10 steals, forced 11 turnovers and limited West Virginia to just 36.2% shooting, the Mountaineers connecting on just 21 of their 58 field goal attempts.
 
"We might as well tear up the game plan and light it on fire if we can't rebound any better than that," Eilert said.
 
Forward Patrick Suemnick, coming off a career-high 20 points in last Saturday's win against No. 3 Kansas, failed to score tonight by missing all six of his field goal attempts before fouling out late in the game.
 
Jaylin Sellers paced UCF with 18 points, Ibrahima Diallo contributed 14 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while Antwann Jones finished with 13.
 
"You look back at the UMass game and you look back at the Houston game, I worry so much about freedom of movement and we're not the biggest, strongest dudes on the block and that's the type of game (UCF) plays," Eilert said. "If you don't have a lot of freedom of movement and you can't go downhill on people when they're hip checking you and steering you, it's a hard game to create advantages.
 
"They played downhill, and we were going side-to-side and that was probably the difference in the game," Eilert added.
 
Jesse Edwards, who dressed for last Saturday's game against Kansas but did not see the court, was dressed again as he tries to come back from a wrist injury. Edwards missed his ninth straight game since fracturing his wrist in the Massachusetts loss on Dec. 16.
 
Tonight's loss continues the Mountaineers' road woes. Including neutral site games, West Virginia is now 0-7 away from the Coliseum and drops to 7-12 overall and 2-4 in Big 12 play.
 
UCF, coming off a road loss at Houston, improves to 12-6, 3-3.
 
These two teams will meet again in Morgantown next month.
 
West Virginia flies back to Morgantown tonight and will return to the road to play at Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon. 
 
That game in Stillwater will tip off at 2 p.m.