Two UCF Players Get Last Laugh Over Oakland With Win

UCF Knights forward Jamichael Stillwell and guard Themus Fulks are no strangers to the Oakland Golden Grizzlies.

While the Knights' win over Oakland on Monday night, 87-83, was the first game between the two schools in their history, it was actually Fulks and Stillwell's fourth. The duo transferred to UCF from Milwaukee over the offseason, which competes in the same conference as Oakland, the Horizon League.

The Panthers and Golden Grizzlies played three times last season, splitting their regular-season meetings with Oakland ultimately getting the win in the conference tournament.

"He coached them well," Stillwell said, crediting longtime Oakland coach Greg Kampe for the Golden Grizzlies' program success. "He runs the same system every year, just different players who play just alike."

UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said both Stillwell and Fulks were "relentless" playing against their old conference foe, and both of them rode it to their first double-doubles of the season.

Fulks dished out 10 assists, leading the team, while scoring 11 points. As for Stillwell, who tallied 16 double-doubles last season to break a single-season record at Milwaukee, he put together his highest-scoring game of the season with 20 points and crashed the boards to pull down 14 rebounds.

"I was just very aggressive, you know," Stillwell said. "I feel like this game's personal to me. They kicked us out of the tournament last year, so I came in with an aggressive mindset."

Six of Stillwell's 14 rebounds were offensive rebounds, which helped the Knights create an eight-point swing against the Golden Grizzlies in second-chance points, 17-9. The Knights won the game by four points.

"It was a great, you know, win for us, but also, I'm really happy for those guys to have an opportunity to kind of get a win against them," Dawkins said.

Dawkins said the Knights want to be a team in which anyone can "step up and have their moment." On Monday night, it was Stillwell's turn, and while it might or might not be the case again on Thursday at 7 p.m. as UCF travels to Daytona Beach to face Pittsburgh, he still has his relentlessness.

"I just want him to go out there and stay relentless, get lost in the fight of what we're doing out there on the court, which he does, and the numbers will just come based on who we're facing, but he always played," Dawkins said. "He always has a winner's spirit, and that's what I want to see him do every night, just bring the winning spirit. Your numbers will vary, but just keep on leading and keep on, you know, being all about winning."

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