ORLANDO - The UCF women's basketball season begins Monday as the Knights host Winthrop in Addition Financial Arena. The teams tip off at 6 p.m. and the game will stream on ESPN+.
GAME INFO
Date: Monday, Nov. 7
Time: 6 p.m. ET
Watch: ESPN+
SCOUTING UCF
The Knights have a lot of new faces from the coaching staff to players with five transfers and three freshmen. Mya Burns from Georgia Southern, Rachel Ranke from Kansas State, Taylor Gibson from Michigan, Anzhane Hutton from Howard, and Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu from Auburn and Gulf Coast State College are the transfers.
The freshman trio includes local native, Sierra Godbolt from Lake Highland Prep, Tiani Abrams from Vista, California, and Bryana Hardy from Lovejoy, Georgia.
The Black and Gold return five players which include Laila Jewett, Kiera Brown, Asia Todd, Destiny Thomas, and Ashton Verhulst. Thomas ended the 2021-22 season with 30 appearances and 22 starts.
UCF head coach Sytia Messer became the 13th head women's basketball coach in UCF history on April 3, 2022. She owns a career record of 54-41 following three seasons as head coach at Tennessee Tech from 2009-12, where she was named Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2011.
UCF has won the last five season openers, defeating Duquense at home 68-39 last year to open the season.
INJURY REPORT
Todd and Robinson-Nwagwu will miss the 2022-23 women's basketball season after suffering ACL injuries during the preseason, Coach Messer announced on Sunday.
Both players were expected to be significant contributors for the Knights this season, who welcome eight newcomers to a team that won its first American Athletic Conference crown last season.
Todd is in her third season with the Knights and has appeared in 22 games.
Robinson-Nwagwu is a highly-touted transfer from Gulf Coast State Junior College where she was an all-region and all-conference selection, after leading the team with 20.2 points per game. She has a knack for getting to the rim and led the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in free throws with 165 and was sixth in points scored with 587.
SCOUTING WINTHROP
After dropping seven in a row at one point last season, the Eagles capped the 2021-22 regular-season with a 6-24 overall record. Caroline De Klauman pulled down 134 rebounds last season, the third highest on the team.
Winthrop was selected to finish ninth in the Big South in the preseason poll.
Semeka Randall Lay enters her second season as head coach of the Eagles. Last year, the Eagles made it to the first round of the Big South conference tournament, falling 65-60 against Presbyterian.
THE SERIES
Monday's contest marks the first meeting between UCF and Winthrop.
