ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF women's basketball team heads to Storrs for an American Athletic Conference contest against No. 5/6 UConn on Saturday.
The Knights (16-8, 8-4 The American) and the Huskies (22-3, 12-0 The American) will tip at 1 p.m. ET in Gampel Pavilion.
GAME INFO
Date: Saturday, Feb. 22
Time: 1 p.m. ET
Watch: ESPN3
MAKING MOVES
With the regular season beginning to wind down, the race is on for a first-round bye at the 2020 American Athletic Conference Championship.
A five-game win streak has propelled the Knights into a tie with Cincinnati for second in the league standings. UCF is on the back end of a three-game stretch against the top three teams, having defeated Cincinnati on Feb. 15 and South Florida on Feb. 19.
KNIGHT NOTES
UCF takes a five-game win streak into Saturday after completing the season sweep South Florida.
The Knights are led offensively by Kay Kay Wright who averages 16.9 points per game, 4.0 assists per game and 2.3 steals per game.
The Knights have also seen a sophomore surge from Brittney Smith, who joins Wright as a double-digit scorer for the Black and Gold. Fourteen double-digit performances, including a pair of 20-point games, bumped her to an 11.0 points per game scoring average. The Orlando native is also second in rebounding with 5.2 boards per game.
Masseny Kaba leads the Knights with 6.4 boards per game and has 21 blocks on the season while averaging 8.3 points per game. Sianni Martin is UCF's third-leading scorer with 8.6 points per game.
The Knights rank 29th nationally in turnovers forced at 20.13 per game, having forced 23 of their 24 opponents into 10 or more turnovers. The Knights hold a 3.54 turnover margin which ranks 51st in the nation.
UCF leads The American and ranks 63rd nationally with a 73.7 free throw percentage.
SCOUTING THE HUSKIES
UCF heads to Storrs for the final American Athletic Conference regular season matchup against UConn. The Huskies are 22-3 overall and have clinched a share of The American regular season title with a 12-0 mark in league play.
Four Huskies average double figures, led by Megan Walker's 19.1 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per contest. Crystal Dangerfield averages 15.1 points, 4.0 assists and 2.1 steals per game. Christyn Williams averages 14.6 points; Olivia Nelson-Ododa averages 11.4 points per game and 8.7 rebounds per game.
UConn leads the all-time series, 12-0, but UCF posted its best showing in its 12-game history against No. 4 UConn on Jan. 16. The Knights were tied with the Huskies at the end of the first quarter, 13-13 and, despite falling behind by as many as 18 points in the second half, pulled within single digits before the final buzzer. The Thursday contest marked just the second time that an American Athletic Conference team has come within single digits of the Huskies in the seven-year history of the league (Tulane, 2017).
NEXT UP
UCF returns to Orlando to host Temple on Feb. 26. The 6 p.m. contest will stream on ESPN3.
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