The Rundown
- The Knights welcome another in-state foe to Addition Financial as they take on North Florida Tuesday, November 19 for their annual Kid’s Day game with tipoff slated for 11 a.m.
- This will mark the fifth matchup between the two teams, as the Knights lead the series 4-0.
- The Ospreys utilize their bench which accounts for 40.3 points per game and they are ranked seventh in the NCAA.
- The Knights lead the Big 12 in rebounds per game with 46.33 per game.
Scouting North Florida
- North Florida enters the matchup with a 1-3 overall record and a two-game losing streak.
- Head coach Erika Lambert is in her 2nd season overall.
- Jazmine Spencer leads the Ospreys in points with 49 and averages 12.3 per game.
- Jasmynne Gibson pulls down 7.3 rebounds per game and leads the team with 29 rebounds.
- This will be the fourth game this season that UNF plays at 11 a.m. as their games against Florida State, Trinity Baptist and Florida Atlantic were all Kid’s Day games.
A Win Would…
- Improve the Knights to 4-0 on the season
- Improve Coach’s Messer UCF home record to 23-13
- Improve the overall series between North Florida to 5-0
- 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.
- 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.
Crashing the Boards
- Achol Akot currently leads the team with 9.3 rebounds after she recorded a double-double against Stetson (11/16) with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
- Transfer Hannah Gusters is second on the team with 8.3 rebounds per game.
- Gusters has tallied double digits in rebounds in two 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.
- Rodriguez has recorded three straight games with double-digit scoring and earned her first start against Stetson (11/16).
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.
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.