For the first time this season, the UCF basketball team showed the first real glimpse of its long-term potential during a near flawless 89-69 beat down against bitter American Athletic Conference foe East Carolina.

The Knights' lethal inside combination of 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall and 6-foot-10 center Justin McBride tormented the Pirates down low, accounting for 16 rebounds and 24 points — at least four of those coming on exclamation dunks. They played a major role in helping UCF win the boards, out-rebounding East Carolina 48-27.

A.J. Davis and Adonys Henriquez provided the necessary defensive and offensive sparks at key moments and even the team's newcomers took part. Junior transfer Tanksley Efianayi hit a buzzer-beater 3-pointer to give UCF a 60-32 halftime advantage.

In similar fashion to UCF's victory against USF, Matt Williams added some early long-range scoring to pad the Knights' lead. And combo senior guard Daiquan Walker continued to quietly build up his résumé at the point guard position, filling in for injured starter B.J. Taylor.

"We could really go as far as what we make up in our minds we want to go," said Justin McBride, who finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. "We're our own worst enemy sometimes. I think that's a lot of humans period. Once you break down that first barrier of, 'Well, we actually could?' Then boom, there it is. That's half the battle fought. Now, you meet that with hard work? That's what separates the good from the great."

Pictures from the UCF basketball game agsinst East Carolina at CFE Arena in Orlando, Florda on January 16, 2016. UCF won the game 89-69.

Players know they have much work to do before reaching greatness, but the team took a necessary step forward in sweeping East Carolina — the same team that bounced the Knights out of the conference tournament last season —– before an announced crowd of 5,411 fans.

The fact that the Pirates (8-10 overall, 0-5 AAC) who served as the stepping stone made it even sweeter for the Knights (9-6 overall, 3-1 AAC).

"That left a bitter taste in my mouth. You know, first round, overtime … you know it was a good game," McBride said, recalling the conference tournament loss. "Everytime I see that ECU across their jerseys, it's like 'OK, that's revenge.'"

Perhaps that extra incentive helped give players a little boost on their shooting touch, with UCF shooting 76.9 percent with 11:37 remaining in the first half. UCF hit a scoring skid in the second half, but the game was well out of reach for East Carolina as five UCF players finished in double digits. Davis and Henriquez also combined for 10 of the team's 18 assists.

UCF had struggled with giving up big leads earlier this season, but took its biggest step forward Saturday in fighting back when plays broke down.

Senior forward Shaheed Davis gave up back-to-back turnovers with just over seven minutes in the first half. Instead of folding and giving way to a Pirates run, the Knights turned up the defensive intensity and Walker grabbed a steal, which set up a McBride put-back off of his own missed layup and forced ECU to foul.

"You're gonna play bad sometimes, it's gonna be ugly and just be able to grind it out," UCF coach Donnie Jones said. "I think those are the things, you know, Justin McBride used to be a one-effort guy and then after that, he was tucking his head, chin to his chest and walking down the floor. Now, you see him in there . . . were two or three times where he made two efforts with his energy. . . . That tells you how it's helping our team."

sgreen@orlandosentinel.com