ORLANDO – The UCF men’s basketball team is set to clash with Steston on Sunday afternoon as the Knights return home for the first of seven consecutive contets at Addition Financial Arena.
GAME INFORMATION
Date: Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023
Time: 4 p.m. ET
Location: Addition Financial Arena; Orlando, Fla.
TV: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
Talent: Austin Lyon (PxP), B.J. Taylor (Analyst)
Radio: FM 96.9/AM 740 The Game
Talent: Marc Daniels (PxP), Taylor Young (Analyst)
Live Stats: click here
KNIGHT NOTES
- UCF earned a pair of hard-fought victories at the Jacksonville Classic hosted in St. Augustine, Fla., fending off a late South Dakota State rally to win 83-80 and then overcoming a deficit of eight in the second half and erasing a six-point deficit with just 1:14 remaining in overtime to power to a 74-71 victory over Charlotte. Darius Johnson earned the tournament's MVP honor and scored a career-high 25 points in the championship game. The trip was the Knights’ final away from home in non-conference play and won’t hit the road until their Big 12 Conference opener against Kansas State on Jan. 6.
- The Knights have now earned three non-conference tournament titles under head coach Johnny Dawkins. Last season, UCF won the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship with a 60-56 overtime victory over Oklahoma State and a 57-50 win over Santa Clara. The Knights were winners of the Myrtle Beach Invitational during the 2018-19 campaign, beating Cal St. Fullerton, Saint Joseph’s and Western Kentucky.
- As a team, UCF is approaching a top-10 national ranking in blocks per game, currently sitting 11th with 6.2 per game.
- Ibrahima Diallo is currently averaging 3.0 blocks per game which stands as the top mark in the Big 12 and 7th nationally. He also leads the Big 12 in total blocks, recording 15, a mark that is 15th in the country. Omar Payne has accumulated a 1.4 blocks per game clip so far, ranking seventh in the Big 12 and 140th in the nation; his seven blocks ranks 10th in the Big 12. Diallo swatted aside five shots against Cal St. Fullerton, leading the Knights.
- Junior guard Jaylin Sellers is making quite an impression on Knight Nation to begin the season. He has three 20+ point games in UCF’s five contests so far and has scored 19 or more in four games. Sellers only had six games in 2022-23 where he scored 20 or more points and is on pace to shatter that mark in 2023-24. Sellers scored 23 points in his Knights debut the season opener, one point short of a career high. He followed that up with a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double at Miami and scored 15 points against Cal St. Fullerton, complimenting the tally with five rebounds and five assists. Sellers is currently the team leader in points and three-point makes and has led the team in scoring and rebounds in three of UCF’s five contests thus far.
- After sitting out for the team’s first two games, senior Marchelus Avery, who had his NCAA trasfer waiver approved on Nov. 15, made an instant impact in his first game as a Knight, scoring nine points and collecting four rebounds and an assist in 14 minutes on the floor. He followed up his debut with 22 points and a career-high four threepoint makes against South Dakota St. on Nov. 19.
ABOUT THE MATCHUP
- UCF and Stetson will meet for the 47th time in program history on Sunday, which is the second most contests against a single opponent in school history. The most common opponent in the Knights’ history is South Florida, who the Black and Gold faced a total of 48 times. The Knights boast a 20-game winning streak over Stetson, with the last UCF loss occuring in Feb. 2001.
- Overall, the Knights lead the all-time series 31-15, going 18-8 when playing at home against the Hatters.
SCOUTING STETSON
- The Hatters enter the contest with a 3-2 record and have won their last two games, beating Milwaukee and Central Michigan at the Sunshine Slam in Daytona Beach, Fla.
- The Hatters are led by Jalen Blackmon and Aubin Gatereste. Blackmon has been an offensive prowess for Stetson average 18.4 points per game while shooting 43.1%/44.4%/87.5%. Gateretse is close to averaging a double-double with 12.4 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. He has already logged two this season and will be on the hunt for another. Freshman Tristan Gross has come on strong in the sixth-man role averaging 22.4 minutes per game.
- The Hatters rank 45th in the nation in opponent field goal percentage, holding foes to 38.4% shooting.
- Stetson sits at No. 45 nationally in assists per game, averaging 17 per contest.
- The Hatters are 41st in the country in three-point makes per game, sinking 9.6 triples on average in each contest.
- Stetson is among the bottom 25 teams in the nation in turnovers forced per game, averaging just eight through their five contests this season.
- The Hatter are led by Donnie Jones, who was UCF's former head coach prior to the hire of Johnny Dawkins.