ORLANDO – The UCF women's basketball team is set to return from safety protocols dealing with positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing this week. The Knights will have gone 16 days between games when they head to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats, Saturday, Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
UCF (9-2, 7-1 The American) has not played since Jan. 27 when the Knights defeated ECU, 52-47, to extend their winning streak to four.
GAME INFO
Date: Saturday, Feb. 13
Time: 1 p.m. ET
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats
DOMINANT DEFENSE
• In typical UCF fashion during the Coach ABE era, the Knights are among the best in the country defensively.
• This season UCF ranks second in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents to 49.1 points per game.
• Six of the Knights' 11 opponents have been held below 50 points, with two (Virginia, Houston) held under 40.
• The Black and Gold are also holding their opponents to a 32.3 field goal percentage, which ranks third in the country.
• In each game this season, UCF has forced its opponent into double-digit turnovers, and ranks 30th nationally in turnovers forced (20.18).
KNIGHT LEADERS
• A pair of Knights are averaging double figures, led by Courtajia Sanders at 11.2 points per game. Diamond Battles is just behind her with 10.5 points per contest.
• Battles also leads the Knights with 3.8 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
• Brittney Smith is just shy of averaging double figures with 9.8 points per game and is UCF's second-leading rebounder with 5.4 boards per contest.
• Masseny Kaba paces the Black and Gold on the glass with 5.8 rebounds per game. She is seven rebounds shy of joining the UCF career top 10 and needs just one block to join the top 10 in that category. Kaba also averages 8.6 points per game for UCF.
A D-LISH PG COMBO
• UCF has a solid point guard combo in Diamond Battles and Alisha Lewis.
• In the win over Cincinnati on Jan. 17, the duo combined for 10 assists and just one turnover. Adding in the win at ECU, Battles and Lewis combined for 19 assists on the week.
• There has only been one game this season in which both did not register at least one assist (at Tulsa). Battles has seven games with four or more assists while Lewis has four this season.
• Battles averages 3.8 assists per game and Lewis averages 2.9.
SCOUTING CINCINNATI
Cincinnati is 4-12 overall, with a 3-9 mark in league play, and snapped a five-game losing streak with a 73-62 win at Memphis on Wednesday.
Preseason Co-Player of the Year IImar'I Thomas leads Cincinnati and the league and ranks 15th nationally with 22.2 points per game. Thomas also leads the Bearcats with 7.8 rebounds per game and shoots 53.2 percent from the field, which ranks 39th nationally. She also leads the team with 3.6 assists per game. Jillian Hayes and Arame Niang each average 1.1 blocks per game for the Bearcats.
Cincinnati holds a slim 9-8 advantage in the all-time series, but the Knights closed the gap with a 57-41 win in Orlando on Jan. 17.
UP NEXT
UCF continues its road swing with a trip to New Orleans. The Knights face Tulane at 7 p.m. on ESPN+ in Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.
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