ORLANDO - The Knights head to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Kansas City, Missouri, as the No. 14 seed and play No. 11 Cincinnati Thursday, March 7 at 9 p.m. in the T-Mobile Center and the game will air live on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
The Rundown
• This contest will mark the 26th meeting between the teams and the third as members of the Big 12.
• The Knights and Bearcats will face off in the postseason for the first time since the 2021 American Athletic Conference Championship in the first round, when UCF came away with a 53-43 victory.
• Cincinnati averages 21.86 free throw attempts per game but is 72.9 percent from the free-throw line as the Knights are second in the league with a free-throw percentage of 74.9.
• UCF and Cincinnati each played in the tropics earlier this season, as the Knights played in the Discover Puerto Rico Classic and the Bearcats competed in the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Scouting Cincinnati
• Cincinnati heads into the matchup with a 13-16 record and a 5-13 mark in the Big 12.
• The Bearcats are on a two-game losing streak after losses to No. 21 Baylor and Iowa State.
• Head coach Katrina Merriweather is in her first season at Cincinnati after spending the past two seasons at Memphis.
• Jillian Hayes leads the Bearcats with 12.9 points per game.
• Hayes and Malea Williams average 8.4 and 6.1 rebounds per game, respectively.
• As a team, the Bearcats are first in the Big 12 averaging 14.7 offensive rebounds per game.
A Win Would…
• Give the Knights their first win in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship
• Improve the overall series record against Cincinnati to 14-12
• Be better than a loss
Rising to the Top
• Junior Kaitlin Peterson is having a stellar debut season for the Knights, as she leads the Big 12 with 20.3 points per game.
• The junior was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team, marking the first Knight to earn a Big 12 award in UCF's inaugural season in the Big 12.
• Peterson surpassed 500 points at Oklahoma State (Feb. 21), as she has 568 points this season and ranks 26th in the NCAA for total points.
• In UCF’s 18 conference games, Peterson is averaging 20.7 points per game, which leads in the league. She set a career high with 35 points at Cincinnati on Jan. 10.
• Peterson started her UCF career with 31 points in the Knights’ 101-63 victory against Bethune-Cookman, which was a career high at the time. She was 6-10 from beyond the arc and 12-19 from the field, adding in one free throw.
• She’s scored double digits in 27 of UCF’s 28 games this season and has reached 20 points on 14 occasions.
Double-Double Duo
• A pair of double-doubles from Khyala Ngodu and Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu lifted the Knights to a 92-87 win over Houston on Jan. 27.
• The frontcourt duo combined for 20 of UCF’s 44 first-half points.
• Ngodu recorded a career-high 25 points, grabbing 12 rebounds for her first double-double of the season and the first of her career. She also had three blocks and tallied one steal.
• Robinson-Nwagwu added 12 points, pulling down 10 rebounds for the first double-double of her career. She also had a game-high five assists for the Knights.
• The pair became the first UCF duo since Taylor Gibson and Destiny Thomas to record two double-doubles in one game. Gibson and Thomas achieved the accomplishment on Nov. 27, 2022, against SEMO.
50 = Magic Number
• The Black and Gold are 4-0 when limiting their opponent to 50 points or less.
• From Nov. 24 through Dec. 19, the Knights held five of their seven opponents to less than 50 points.
• UCF held Campbell (Dec. 3) and Morgan State (Dec. 19) to just 41 points marking the fewest points against an opponent this season.
Déjà Vu
• Kaitlin Peterson recorded back-to-back 20-plus point games on Jan. 3 and 6, tallying 22 points in both games against Oklahoma State and Kansas State.
• Peterson’s achievement marked the first time a UCF player has recorded consecutive 20-point games since the 2021-22 season when Diamond Battles scored 21 points in back-to-back games on Jan. 22 and 26.
Back in the Big 12
• Sytia Messer and Mike Carey have spent a significant portion of their coaching career in the Big 12.
• Coach Messer spent seven years in Waco as an assistant coach at Baylor and Carey is a veteran in the Big 12, where he was 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 transfer Femi Funeus on Jan. 9.
• Funeus, a 6-2 forward, has competed in 58 games, spending three years at Seton Hall and one year at Southern Mississippi.
• 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 in the state of Florida.
Last Time Out
• UCF women’s basketball fought back from a 21-point deficit, but was unable to overcome Houston, 68-67, in the Fertitta Center Saturday night.
• The Knights outrebounded the Cougars 41-31. Both teams tied with 11 assists.
• Kaitlin Peterson tallied 34 points en route to her fifth 30-plus point game this season, which leads the league.
•Mya Burns recorded seven rebounds on the night while Laila Jewett dished out four assists.
Spreading the Wealth
• UCF is 10-3 when it records more assists than its opponent.
• Nine Knights have led UCF in assists in at least one game this season.
• Laila Jewett has led the team in assists throughout 17 games this season and ranks 12th in the Big 12 with 3.5 assists per game.
• The Black and Gold average 11.2 assists per game.
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.
1,000 Point Club
• Mya Burns eclipsed the 1,000 career points milestone on Dec. 3 against Campbell.
• Burns came to UCF in the 2022-23 season, spending her first three seasons at Georgia Southern accumulating 656 points.
Crashing the Boards
• Freshman Khyala Ngodu leads the team in conference play with 6.7 rebounds per game, which ranks 11th in the conference.
• Ngodu has tallied 17 games with five-plus rebounds.
• The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, native earned her first start with the Knights on Jan. 13 against West Virginia.
• She earned her first double-double with a career-high 25 points and 12 rebounds in the Black and Gold’s first Big 12 win against Houston (Jan. 27).
Taking Advantage of The Freebies
• As a team, the Black and Gold are ranked second in the Big 12 with a free-throw percentage of 74.9.
• In the matchup against Houston on Jan. 27, UCF recorded a season-high 33 free throws made.
• The Knights are averaging 19.04 free throw attempts per game.
• Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu went 14-15 from the free throw line against West Virginia (1/13) to mark a career-high in free throws made and attempted.
• Robinson-Nwagwu’s 14 free throws made ranks her for second in the program’s single game records as Kay Kay Wright holds the top spot with 16.
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.
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.
Back On Campus
• UCF returns seven players from last year’s roster.
• Taylor Gibson, Mya Burns, Sierra Godbolt, Laila Jewett and Anzhané Hutton all saw court time last season.
• Morgan Robinson-Nwagwu and Asia Todd both missed the entire 2022-23 season due to injury.
Duo of Mid-Year Transfers
• Kaitlin Peterson (Indiana) and Timia Ware (LSU) transferred mid-year from their respective schools but were only able to practice with UCF due to playing games during the fall semester.
• Peterson played in six games during the fall where she recorded 24 points and five rebounds.
• Ware appeared in one game at LSU before transferring to UCF in December.
Welcome to Orlando
• Four new faces joined the UCF program in the offseason.
• A freshman duo of Achol Akot and Khyala Ngodu arrived in Orlando, along with the transfer class that includes Jayla Kelly (Missouri) and Mary McMillan (UNC-Wilmington).
• Kelly appeared in 26 games last season averaging 3.2 points and 2.7 rebounds.
• McMillan played in five games before suffering a season-ending injury.
New Staff, New Era
• The Knights brought in five new faces to join the women’s basketball program.
• Chandler McCabe joined the staff as assistant coach in May, along with Erin Horne as director of operations.
• Tasha Taylor was added to the UCF women’s basketball coaching staff as an assistant coach in July 2023.
• Mike Carey, a 34-year collegiate coaching veteran with Big 12 Conference experience, enters his first season with the Knights in 2023-24.
• Walter Pitts rounds out the staff as assistant coach and director of player development.
New Kids on the Block
• UCF officially joined the Big 12 Conference on July 1, 2023.
• The Knights’ athletics program has now moved from Division III, Division II, the FCS level, the FBS level that included time in the Mid Atlantic Conference, Conference USA, the American Athletic Conference, and now to the Big 12 Conference.
• The Knights enter the Power 5 as the youngest school, having been founded in 1963 to supply NASA with engineers.
• UCF joined the conference with Cincinnati, Houston and BYU to push the conference to 14 women’s basketball programs.
We>Me
• The players came up with a motto for this year ‘We are greater than me’.
• We are greater than me means that we are greater than ourselves and its important for us to work together as a team rather than as a single individual.