Tristan Spurlock scored 15 points as Central Florida led wire-to-wire in a 62-45 win over Howard on Friday night.
Spurlock was 6 of 8 from the field, including 2 of 4 3-pointers, for the Knights (8-3) in the opening game of the UCF Holiday Tournament.
Isaiah Sykes added 12 points and Matt Williams 11 for UCF, which has won five of its past six games. Keith Clanton added 11 boards as the Knights outrebounded the Bison 37-30.
UCF, which came in ranked fifth nationally in field goal percentage at 51.1 percent (253 of 495), shot only 41.4 percent (24 of 58), but that was better than Howard's 38.3 percent (18 of 47). UCF shot 27.3 percent from beyond the arc (6 of 22), well below its 40.9-percent average (67 of 164).
Anton Dickerson scored nine points to lead the Bison (3-11), who have lost three in a row.
