The Rundown
- The Knights host Stetson for a Saturday matinee on November 16 at 4 p.m.
- With DeLand being just about an hour up the road this will mark the 65th matchup between the two programs.
- Stetson’s head coach Lynn Bria has ties with UCF as she was the head coach from 1996-1999 and holds a 50-36 record while at the helm for UCF.
- The Hatters are ranked 13th in the NCAA with 30.7 three-point attempts per game while the Knights are 13th for three-point percentage defense (17.4).
Scouting Stetson
- Stetson enters the matchup with a 2-1 overall record and a two-game win streak.
- Head coach Lynn Bria is in her 30th season overall and 17th season with the Hatters as she boasts a 284-226 record.
- Cameron Thomas leads the Hatters in points with 52 and averages 17.3 points per game.
- Former UCF Knight Mary McMillian is second on the team in scoring with 33 points.
A Win Would…
- Improve the Knights to 3-0 on the season
- Improve Coach’s Messer UCF home record to 22-13
- Improve the overall series between Stetson to 37-28
- Be better than a loss
Strong Start
- The Knights 76-44 victory over Iona on Nov. 5 marked the seventh consecutive season opener victory for the Black and Gold.
- Since Coach Messer took over the program in 2022, the Knights have started out the season at home and are 3-0 in home openers in the Messer era.
- In Messer’s first year at the helm for UCF, she led her team to a 6-0 start which then marked the best start since the 7-0 start during the 1984-85 season.
- In just her second season, she broke the record with an 8-0 start to etch history into the record books with the best start in program history.
Rising to the Top
- Senior Kaitlin Peterson had a stellar debut season for the Knights, as she led the Big 12 with 20.7 points per game.
- Currently, she is tied for the lead on the team with 15.5 points per game.
- The senior was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team, marking the first Knight to earn a Big 12 award in their inaugural season in the Big 12.
- Peterson surpassed 500 points at Oklahoma State (Feb. 21), as she recorded 599 points last season and ranked 19th in the NCAA for points per game.
- She scored double digits in 27 of UCF’s 28 games last season and reached 20 points on 15 occasions.
Crashing the Boards
- Transfer Hannah Gusters leads the team and the Big 12 with 11 rebounds per game.
- Gusters has tallied double digits in rebounds in both games this season.
- The Dallas, Texas, native earned her first start with the Knights on Nov. 5 against Iona.
- She earned her first double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the Black and Gold’s first game of the 24-25 season against Iona (Nov. 5).
- Gusters has known Coach Messer since the eighth grade and has followed her to three universities (Baylor, LSU and UCF).
Fresh Start
- Freshman, Emely Rodriguez started her collegiate career with 13 points against Iona in the Knights season opener Nov. 5.
- The Dominican Republic native tallied 18 points against Marquette (Nov. 7) which marked just her second game donning the Black and Gold.
Welcome to Orlando
- The Knights bring nine newcomers to the 2024-25 squad, four of which are transfers.
- Freshman Mahogany Chandler-Roberts represents one of three players from the state of Oregon who earned a McDonald’s All-American nomination, in addition to her selection as the reigning Portland Interscholastic League’s Player of the Year after averaging 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds for Benson Tech.
- Graduate student Hannah Gusters joins the Knights after spending the 2023-24 season with Oklahoma State. The former Cowgirl averaged 14.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 21 games last season.
- Fellow graduate student Nevaeh Brown (ETSU) brings the second-most average points in UCF’s transfer class, having produced an average 13.6 points with 3.6 rebounds in a season-high 30 starts. Lucie Castagne from Bryant (2.28 PPG, 2 RPG) and Ally Stedman from Miami (2.23 PPG, 0.65 RPG) round out the 2024-25 transfer class.
- Emely Rodriguez, Summer Yancy, Adeang Ring and Arek Angui represent the final four incoming freshman, joining Chandler-Roberts. Rodriguez, the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Girl’s Basketball Player of the Year last season, averaged 26.5 points, 15.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game; Yancy, the fourth-ranked high school player out of Missouri, made the Class 6 All-State team three times; Ring comes to Orlando as the second-ranked high school player out of Arizona; Angui averaged 14.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 6.0 blocks per game in her final high school season, per MaxPreps.
Home Sweet Home
- The Knights open the season with six home games which marks the most since the 1999-2000 season when UCF started its slate with nine straight home games.
- UCF has opened the season at home for the past five seasons, earning a win in all five of those matchups.
- Last season, the Black and Gold showcased an 8-8 record at home in their inaugural season in the Big 12.
Adding Height to the Roster
- Four out of the five freshmen stand at six foot or above.
- The average height of the four newcomers is six-foot-three.
- Looking at the full roster, there are a total of nine players who are six foot or taller as Coach Messer has said before she knows the Big 12 is a conference that focuses on the Bigs and that is part of her recruiting philosophy.
One team, one heartbeat
- This season the team’s motto is one team, one heartbeat.
- The motto represents unity, solidarity, and collective effort within our team. It emphasizes that every individual is a vital part of the whole, contributing to a shared goal with a single, unified purpose. Just as a heartbeat symbolizes life and continuity, this phrase conveys that the team moves as one, with each member's actions synchronized and connected. The focus is on collaboration and putting the team’s success above personal ambition, reinforcing that they are stronger together than apart.
Stamping the Passport
- UCF roster features five international players in 2024-25.
- Graduate transfer, Lucie Castagne, hails from Paris, France but has been in the states the past four years at Bryant University.
- Achol Akot returns for her second season at UCF and is from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- Freshmen Emely Rodriguez (La Romana, Dominican Republic), Adeang Ring (Sydney, Australia) and Arek Angui (Juba, South Sudan) add to the roster with international experience.
- The Knights are one of three teams in the Big 12 with five or more internationals represented on their roster as Colorado leads with league with seven and Utah adds five.