OXFORD — Ole Miss didn’t score until after the second media timeout Wednesday night.

UCF scored three touchdowns during the same span.

When Matthew Murrell finally knocked down Ole Miss’ first shot of the night, a 3-pointer with 11:07 left in the first half, it cut the score to 21-3.

Wednesday was billed as a NET opportunity for Ole Miss, a chance to maybe add some energy to a season before Southeastern Conference play cranks up in two weeks. And for a bit Wednesday night, the Rebels appeared poised to pull off a major comeback, closing to as few as four points in the second half.

In the end, however, that 21-0 hole was simply too deep. UCF used a 7-0 late to push its lead back to 15 en route to a 72-61 victory over the Rebels.

Ole Miss fell to 7-3. UCF improved to 8-2.

“Central Florida came out with a lot of pop, a lot of juice,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “Our team didn’t have a physical approach to it on either end. …Obviously, we settled in and made a run and got it to four with kind of a new lineup. …They made a couple of tough shots and then it flipped again. They offensive rebounded the ball. We couldn’t guard the dribble. Give Central Florida a lot of credit for a good road win tonight.”

Murrell scored Ole Miss’ first 10 points and finished with a game-high 21, making seven of 13 shots from the floor and four of eight from behind the 3-point line. Josh Mballa was terrific off the bench, scoring 18 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Malique Ewin added 10 points and three rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench as well.

Ole Miss ended the first half on an 11-0 run and trailed just 36-26 at halftime. At the time, it felt like a victory of sorts, and Ole Miss came out charging in the second half, cutting the Knights’ lead to seven, then five and then four. However, UCF kept making big shots to push the lead to a more comfortable margin and finally, the Rebels’ offense broke down on a few consecutive trips and the opportunity for a huge comeback — and a resume-building win — was lost.

“It was an inability to play downhill offensively,” Davis said. “We’d done so well in the last game (against Valparaiso). We settled (against UCF). Ball movement wasn’t very good. We missed a couple of shots around the goal and we couldn’t keep those guys out of the paint. It was just too big of a hole.”

“It was kind of like we went back to what happened in the first half, it felt like,” Mballa said, referring to UCF’s final run. “We weren’t getting stops. They were getting easy buckets, offensive boards. Really we didn’t control our defensive rebounds. They got second-chance points and that got them over the top.”

UCF won the rebounding battle, 36-32, including 14 offensive rebounds. Ole Miss committed 15 turnovers, four more than the Knights’ 11. UCF won second-chance points, 20-12.

Ole Miss had a similar start at Memphis two weeks ago, digging a massive crater of a hole in the game’s opening minutes.

“We just talked about it with our team, sure,” Davis said. “The margin is there. It’s poor. I take full responsibility for it. We’ve got to get off to better starts. We’ll look at maybe some different guys.”

C.J. Kelly led UCF with 20 points. Taylor Hendricks had 17, Ithiel Horton had 11 and Darius Johnson added 10.

Ole Miss entertains Temple Saturday at 4 p.m.

Notes:

— Ole Miss guard James White went down hard on a a dunk attempt with 3:09 left. He was favoring his right leg when he limped to the bench.

— Guard Daeshun Ruffin played almost 18 minutes and recorded just two points. He did have six assists, but his lack of explosiveness showed against a talented UCF backcourt.

-Jayveous McKinnis started but played less than seven minutes and did not score.

— Myles Burns was 1-for-9 shooting, scoring three points in more than 22 minutes.

— Jaemyn Brakefield played 8:23 as a starter. He failed to score or record a rebound or an an assist. He committed three fouls in that span.