Darius Johnson scored a career-high 42 points, including the 3-pointer that forced overtime, and UCF rallied to advance to Sunday’s championship round of the inaugural College Basketball Crown with a 104-98 defeat of Villanova on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The win sends UCF (20-16) to face Nebraska, which beat Boise State in Saturday’s first semifinal, 79-69.
Johnson knocked down one of his three made 3-pointers with 7.6 seconds remaining, tying the game at 88 after Villanova (21-15) led for most of the final five minutes in regulation.
Johnson scored 10 points in overtime, including the first points of the extra session on a layup, preceding Jordan Ivy-Curry’s 3-pointer with the next possession after Johnson rebounded a Wooga Poplar miss.
Poplar, who led the Wildcats with 32 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, also missed a shot at the rim just before time expired at the end of regulation.
With its quick five points to start the extra frame, UCF controlled the five-minute period.
Villanova pulled within two points when Eric Dixon, the program’s all-time career leading scorer, made his first 3-pointer after missing his first 10 attempts from beyond the arc.
Dixon’s shooting woes loomed large early, as UCF built an 11-point lead in the second half amid Dixon missing 11 of his first 12 field-goal attempts. He regrouped, however, going for 8-for-12 the rest of the way to 29 points.
Dixon’s second-half emergence helped Villanova erase the 11-point deficit, as he scored on back-to-back point-blank shots during a 22-10 stretch that gave the Wildcats the lead with 5:23 to go.
UCF did not regain the lead until Johnson’s layup to open overtime. That basket was part of a 10-point period for Johnson, whose eruption on Saturday followed a 31-point performance in UCF’s quarterfinal win over Cincinnati.
Ivy-Curry backed up Johnson with 18 points, including 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range to pace UCF to a 15-of-35 day from beyond the arc (42.9 percent). Villanova shot just 8-of-31 (25.8 percent) from 3-point distance, led by Tyler Perkins’ 4-of-10 before he fouled out with 18 points.
With Saturday’s win, UCF is guaranteed $100,000 in NIL prize money. The College Basketball Crown champion receives $300,000.
–Field Level Media
