Men's Basketball Ready for Saturday Clash with No. 18/17 BYU

ORLANDO – The UCF men’s basketball team put the conference on notice Wednesday evening, and the group has the opportunity to make another statement Saturday afternoon.

Following the Knights’ (10-4, 1-1 Big 12) 65-60 midweek upset victory over the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks at Addition Financial Arena, UCF is immediately presented with another chance to topple a ranked conference foe at home Saturday against the visiting No. 18/17 BYU Cougars (AP/USA Today Coaches).

The tilt against BYU (12-3, 0-2 Big 12) will represent the Knights’ third ranked matchup of the season, as well as the second in a gauntlet of four consecutive games against ranked opponents. On the heels of Saturday’s tilt with the Cougars, UCF will then face the No. 25 Texas Longhorns and the No. 2 Houston Cougars in consecutive contests on the road.

UCF’s defense, which produced a dominant display in the team’s win over the Jayhawks, will be put to the test once more Saturday. Against Kansas, the Knights limited their opponent to just 60 points or fewer, only the second time this season the Jayhawks failed to surpass the 60-point threshold.

UCF did its job in limiting the Big 12’s Preseason Player of the Year, Hunter Dickinson’s production to just 12 points, below his career-high season average of 18.87 per game and the second-fewest points the senior center has scored in a game this year.

The Knights built their upset victory on a strong showing in the second half and prevailing in the turnover battle, as the Jayhawks’ 18 turnovers tied a single-game season high while UCF committed only 13, and just six in the final 20 minutes of play.

The Black and Gold now rank fourth in the conference and 13th in the nation in turnovers forced per game with 16.79, and with seven more blocks, including three by CJ Walker and two more from Shemarri Allen, remain the Big 12’s leader in blocks per game with 5.7, a mark that ranks 11th nationally.

On the offensive end, UCF outscored Kansas 36-23 in the second half on 11-of-23 shooting (47.8 percent) while yielding only seven made field goals to the Jayhawks in the final frame. Jaylin Sellers (18 points), Johnson (17) and Ibrahima Diallo (13) each hit double figures, and Sellers enters the weekend matchup with BYU as the third-leading scorer in the conference with an average of 17.8 points per game, exceeding his career average of 11.5.

In the first meeting between the two programs in either’s history, the Knights will look to hand BYU its third consecutive defeat to begin conference play, as the Cougars also suffered losses to Cincinnati at home (71-60) and on the road at Baylor (81-72).

The Cougars provide no respite for UCF’s defense, as the team visits the Sunshine State as the top-ranked team in the country in assists per game with 21.6 while also owning the seventh-highest scoring offense in the nation with 87.1 points per game, a mark that ranks second in the Big 12 behind No. 14 Baylor’s 87.7.

BYU’s offense is led by senior Jaxon Robinson’s 14.8 points per game, complemented by a supporting class that includes four other Cougars who boast averages of at least 10 points per game (Trevin Knell, Spencer Johnson, Noah Waterman and Richie Saunders).

The Cougars excel on the glass on the defensive end as well in pulling down an average of 29.9 defensive rebounds per game, a mark that ranks first in the Big 12 and 10th in the nation to factor into their overall total of 43.1 rebounds per game (2nd Big 12, 6th NCAA).

Tipoff for the Knights’ Saturday contest is slated for 4 p.m. from Addition Financial Arena, immediately following the UCF women’s basketball team’s matinee tilt with No. 24/25 West Virginia at 12 p.m. to round out the doubleheader in Orlando.

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