ORLANDO, Fla., FEB. 11, 2015 – With a sick Nehemias Morillo and an injured Corey Allen Jr., the USF men's basketball team faced a deficit too big to overcome in Wednesday's 73-62 loss to UCF.

Morillo, the Bull's third-leading scorer, missed his second consecutive game with the same illness that kept him out of the game at Cincinnati. The Bulls (7-18, 1-11) then received a second loss in the first half when the American Athletic Conference's second-leading scorer suffered a left ankle injury with 8:50 remaining in the first half.

"He's a warrior. He's a kid that is trying to get the most out of this opportunity," said head coach Orlando Antigua. "I tried to hold him off, but he looked at me and convinced me he was good to go in the second half."

The St. Louis native returned missed the remainder of the first half. He returned in the second half, but seemed to just not be the same. Allen Jr. finished with a team-high 15 points, but was 3-of-13 from the field in the second half including 0-of-5 from 3-point range. For the game, the Bulls shot 35.7 percent from the field and the Knights (10-13, 3-9) shot 49.0 percent.

"We let them shoot the ball too comfortably," Antigua said. "You aren't going to beat too many teams shooting 49-percent from the floor."

USF trailed by its largest deficit of the game, 57-37 with 6:45 to play. A Troy Holston Jr. 3-pointer capped off a 15-4 run by the Bulls to cut the deficit to just nine points, 61-52 with 3:58 to play. USF would get no closer as UCF forward Staphon Blair scored seven of the Knights final 12 points in front of a 6,201 fans at CFE Arena, which included a raucous student section.

"One of the things I was disappointed about is how we came out of the gate," said Antigua. "We can't come out like that, like we are scared or intimidated. We've got to come out and compete. We've been in hostile environments and responded. I'm just not sure why we came out timid in the first half."

The Bulls outrebounded the Knights 43-35 including a season-best 19 offensive rebounds.

Holston Jr. finished with 14 points while fellow freshmen Dinero Mercurius (Bronx, N.Y.) and Bo Zeigler (Detroit) each scored 10 points.

The Bulls return to the Sun Dome on Saturday, Feb. 14 to host Memphis at noon. Purchase tickets HERE.