ORLANDO - UCF women's basketball will head to Texas for a Saturday matinee matchup against No. 12 Baylor in Waco at the new Foster Pavillion.
The Rundown
• This is the fourth matchup between the two teams, the last two matchups were in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• With Coach Messer spending eight seasons at Baylor, this will be her first time playing against Baylor since she left after the 2020-21 season to go with Kim Mulkey to LSU for one year before taking the head coaching job at UCF.
• In the Big 12 standings, UCF and Baylor are neck and neck in scoring defense with 58.9 and 57.8 respectively.
Scouting Baylor
• Baylor heads into the matchup with a 14-2 record and are 3-2 in the Big 12.
• Baylor heads into the matchup on a two-game losing streak, Kansas and reigning Big 12 Champion Iowa State.
• Head Coach Nicki Collen is in her third season at Baylor and third overall as a head coach.
• Sarah Andrews leads the team in scoring, averaging 12.6 points per game with Dre’Una Edwards just behind with 12.2 points per game.
• Sarah Andrews is second in the Big 12 with 2.75 three-pointers per game.
• As a team, the Bears are No. 1 in the Big 12 and 2nd in the NCAA for assists per game (20.7).
A Win Would…
• Give the Knights their first win in Big 12 conference play
• Improve the record to 10-6
• Give UCF its first win against Baylor in program history and the first AP top 15 win since March, 4
• Give Sytia Messer her 24th win at UCF
• Be better than a loss
No. 3 goes for 30-plus (not once, not twice but three times)
• Kaitlin Peterson set yet another career-high in scoring with 35 points at Cincinnati (1/10).
• Junior mid-year transfer dropped a then career-high 31 points in her first game as a Knight.
• Peterson shot 6-10 from beyond the arc and 12-19 from the field adding in one free throw.
• Marking it her second career game in double digits, and her first since Feb. 9, 2022, at Illinois.
• She also notched the first 30-plus point game by a Knight since Laila Jewett scored 34 in UCF’s 79-74 win over Samford Nov. 26, 2022.
• In the third game of the Puerto Rico Classic, Peterson recorded a then career-high 32 points to mark her second 30-plus game of the season.
• She started off the season on a six-game double digit scoring streak.
Déjà Vu
• Kaitlin Peterson recorded back-to-back 20-plus point games on Jan. 3 and 6.
• The Eufaula native tallied 22 points in both games against Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
• Peterson’s achievement marked the first time since the 2021-22 season when Diamond Battles scored 21 points in back-to-back games on Jan. 22 and 26.
Eight Years in Waco
• Sytia Messer spent eight seasons at Baylor from 2013-2021 as an assistant coach under head coach Kim Mulkey.
• This will be the first time that Coach Messer is back in Waco and playing against Baylor.
• While Coach Messer was at Baylor, she helped guide the team to five Elite Eight appearances and winning the National Championship in 2019.
Back in the Big 12
• Sytia Messer and Mike Carey have spent a good amount of their coaching career in the Big 12.
• Coach Messer spent seven years in Waco as an assistant coach at Baylor.
• Coach Carey is a veteran in the Big 12 where he was the head coach at West Virginia for 21 years, spending 10 of those in the Big 12.
• The Knights are the only coaching staff in the Big 12 to have a previous head coach and assistant coach with Big 12 experience.
New Year, New Addition
• The Knights received a late present with the addition of Femi Funeus on Jan. 9.
• Funeus, a 6-2 forward, competed in 58 games spending three years at Seton Hall and one year at Southern Mississippi.
• Prior to UCF, she averaged 5.34 points and 4.14 rebounds.
• Last year, Funeus played in a career-high 27 games after spending 714 days away from the playing court due to an injury and recorded the second-best field goal percentage on the team with a 49.2 percent mark.
• A native of Plantation, Florida, Funeus was tabbed to the Big East All-Academic team all three years at Seton Hall.
• Out of high school, she was one of the top-ranked players of out of the state of Florida.
Last Time Out
• The UCF women’s basketball team fell to No. 24 West Virginia, 76-59, Saturday afternoon in Addition Financial Arena. The Knights (9-6, 0-5 Big 12) dropped their fifth straight game, still looking for their first-ever Big 12 conference victory.
• The Knights kept the game close with the Mountaineers (14-2, 3-2 Big 12) in the first half only down six points. However, the Mountaineers showed everyone why they are ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and came out hot in the second half. West Virginia outscored UCF 23-9 to put enough distance between them and the Knights, despite a late push by UCF in the late minutes.
• Kaitlin Peterson and Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu led the Knights with 18 points apiece, a career high for Robinson-Nwagwu. Freshman center Khayla Ngodu made her first career start for UCF and was just one point shy from her first career double-double. Ngodu had a career high 12 rebounds, five offensive and seven defensive, and scored nine points.
• Peterson played 38 minutes after playing a full 40 in Cincinnati on Wednesday showing her toughness and versatility for the Knights.
8-0 Start
• The Knights raced out to an 8-0 start to kick off the 2023-24 season, marking the best start in program history.
• The Black and Gold made history with a 72-45 win over New Orleans on Dec. 11.
• Last season under first year head coach Sytia Messer, the Knights started out 6-0 marking the then second-best start since the 7-0 start in 1984.
Crashing the Boards
• Freshman Achol Akot leads the team in rebounds, averaging 8.4 rebounds.
• Currently, she is ranked No. 84 in the NCAA for rebounds per game.
• She has recorded a team-high in rebounds in every game this season.
• Akot has tallied five games with double digits in rebounds.
1,000 Club
• Mya Burns eclipsed 1,000 career points milestone on Dec. 3 against Campbell.
• Burns came to UCF in the 2022-23 season, as she spent her first three seasons at Georgia Southern and accumulated 656 points.
• Burns is the first transfer to earn her 1,000 career points at UCF.
Give ‘Em The Freebies
• As a team, the Black and Gold are ranked 74th in the nation with a free-throw percentage of 74.5.
• In the matchup against West Virginia on Jan. 13, the Black and Gold recorded a season-high 29 free throws made.
• In the Big 12, the Knights are No. 2 in free throw percentage just behind Texas Tech (75.6).
Discover Puerto Rico Classic
• The Black and Gold spent their Thanksgiving break in San Juan, Puerto Rico playing in the Discover Puerto Rico Classic.
• The Knights played a total of three games and left the island with three wins, for an overall record of 6-0.
• UCF faced Jackson State, St. John’s and Sacred Heart in the Discover Puerto Rico Classic.
Starting the season on 100
• UCF started the season off with a 101-63 win against Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 6 marking the fifth consecutive season-opening victory, all of which have come on its home floor.
• The Knights also scored at least 90 points in a season-opener for the first time since the 2014-15 campaign, when they topped Florida Atlantic 94-74 Nov. 14.
• UCF topped 100 points in a single game for the first time since January 26, 1998, in its 102-70 victory at Troy.
• The Knights limited BCU to 16 or fewer points in three of the four quarters.
• With 13 3-point field goals, the comfortable victory also featured the second time in as many seasons that saw UCF drill at least 10 triples in its season-opening win. The team drained 11 3-point shots in its 2022-23 season-opening win over Winthrop, representing its lone contest with double-digit threes.