Storrs - These are desperate days for UConn.

The Huskies need to win as many games as possible to keep their rapidly fading postseason hopes alive.

They played with a sense of urgency on Thursday against Central Florida in an American Athletic Conference basketball game at Gampel Pavilion, claiming a 67-60 victory.

"This win was really huge," freshman Daniel Hamilton said. "It built up momentum for our next game on Sunday (against South Florida). … We've just got to make that tournament."

UConn's performance had its share of warts, as the final margin was closer than it probably should have been.

But beauty is in the eye of the victory holder.

The Huskies (10-7, 3-2) never trailed, raced out to an 18-point lead and held off a late charge from the Knights (9-9, 2-5).

Senior Ryan Boatright showed his experience and poise, scoring a game-high 18 points, and sophomore Amida Brimah dunked his way to 14 points while junior Omar Calhoun added 11 points and Hamilton finished with 10 points, a team-best nine rebounds and seven assists, and didn't commit a turnover for only the second time this season.

The Huskies shared the basketball, assisting on 21 of their 25 made field goals, and committed only eight turnovers, tying a season-low.

Coach Kevin Ollie gave his team's overall performance mixed reviews.

"At the start of the game, I really liked our aggressiveness," Ollie said. "We wanted to be aggressive. We wanted to get back to playing UConn basketball. … We did a good job getting deflections and getting out on the break.

"We had an 18-point lead with five minutes to go (in the first half) and then we just relaxed. Good teams can't relax. But I was proud of our guys in the second half to hold that team to 60 points. ... It was a pretty damn good job with our defense."

Central Florida came into the game ranked first in the conference in scoring overall at 70.2 points per game. The Knights also had the worst scoring defense, allowing 73.4.

Playing at Gampel for the first time since Dec. 5, the Huskies fed off the sold-out crowd's energy to roar out an 18-point lead. Calhoun provided the early spark, scoring all of his 11 points in the first 11 minutes, 42 seconds.

In a rare explosive move, Calhoun blew by a defender on the baseline and slammed home a one-handed power dunk to help jump-start a 19-2 spurt. "No, I haven't seen that," Ollie said with a laugh. "That was pretty nice."

The Huskies possessed a deadly perimeter shooting touch, burying 10 of their season-high 11 3-pointers in the first half. Boatright's 3-pointer capped the run and pushed the lead to 36-18 with 5:26 left in the first half.

The expected blowout never materialized.

UCF closed the first half with a 10-run to whittle the deficit to 39-33. The game remained close the rest of the way. UConn bogged down and started missing free throws, converting 6-for-13 overall. Its main source of offense came from lobs to Brimah, who had 12 second half points.

Nearly all the good feeling left the building when Adonys Henriquez's 3-pointer cut the deficit to 61-56 with 3:29 left.

The Huskies executed on three straight possessions to alleviate the pressure. Boatright, who talked about being fed up with losing on Wednesday, scored on a driving layup.

"I looked up at the score … and the momentum was going their way," Boatright said. "I just knew we had to pick it up and turn things around at the point. … That just got us going again and putting the ball back in the hole."

Hamilton's lob set up Brimah for a dunk and Purvis scored on a baseline drive to increase the lead to 10 with 1:33 left.

The defense did the rest, limiting the Knights to 36.8 percent from the field.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe