ORLANDO, Fla. – The North Carolina A&T men's basketball team fell to the University of Central Florida (UCF), 83-68, inside the Addition Financial Arena on Saturday afternoon. 

Junior guard Demetric Horton (Raleigh, N.C.) led the Aggies (3-8) with his 17 points and seven rebounds. Horton shot 6-for-11 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He has made a team-best 27 threes on the year.  

A&T had two other double-figure scorers in the game. Junior forward Jeremy Robinson had 11 and graduate guard David Beatty tallied 10. 
"We went toe-to-toe with an NCAA tournament type of team," said head coach Will Jones. "These guys fight. When it's all said and done, this team's fight will be the reason for our success." 

Trailing 51-36 in the second half, the Aggies gave UCF their best shot at a comeback.  

Sophomore Marcus Watson (Buford, Ga.) was fouled on a 3-point attempt and knocked down all three shots from the free throw line. The next possession, Horton snatched an offensive rebound, kicked it back out and, after the ball found itself back into his hands, tickled the twine from beyond the 3-point arc. A jumper in the lane from graduate guard Tyler Maye (Farmville, N.C.) on the next play had A&T within seven, 51-44, at the under-16 media timeout.  

A quick 5-0 spurt extended the Knights lead to 12. Another Horton 3-ball and a layup from Beatty closed the gap to seven one final time. That is the closest A&T would get.  

UCF got their lead back up to double-digits on a jumper from Darius Johnson and pushed it to 13 on a shot from Green. They led by as many as 18 with 4:15 remaining in the game.  

The Knights out-rebounded A&T 40-30 with four players grabbing five-plus boards, led by Knights forward CJ Walker's seven. That led to a 23-17 advantage in second-chance points, including 13-4 in the first half. The Aggies did, however, force their opponent into more turnovers than they committed themselves as they have all season. The Knights had 17 mishaps compared to A&T's 15.  

To begin the game, the Knights (6-2) went up 4-0 quickly on a pair of dunks. Horton willed the Aggies to get going by scoring their first five points, a 3-pointer followed by two free throws.  

A layup in the paint from Maye gave A&T a 7-6 lead and Watson would extend that advantage to three, 9-6, with a pair of free throws. The Aggies had their best free-throw shooting performance of the year, knocking down 82.4 percent (14-for-17) of their shots from the line. 

Four points from Walker put UCF ahead, 10-9, and that is when UCF guard Darin Green, Jr. started to heat up. Green proceeded to knock down two-straight 3-pointers to extend the Knights lead to 16-11 with 13:03 remaining in the first half. He finished with a game-high 18 points. 

It was a five-point game, 22-17, following a jumper from freshman guard Kyle Duke (Toronto, Canada). UCF, however, went on an 11-0 run due in large part to 0-for-4 shooting and two turnovers from the Aggies over the next three minutes and claimed a 16-point lead, 33-17. The Knights still led by 16, but four quick points from sophomore guard Milton Matthews (District Heights, Md.) closed the deficit to 12, 46-34, at the break.