The Rundown
- The Knights open their 2024-25 season slate Tuesday, November 5 against Iona followed by a matchup with Marquette on Thursday.
- The Knights and Gaels face off for the first time since the 2014 season, where Iona came away with a 75-67 victory.
- UCF’s second matchup of the season features Marquette, the Knights hold a 1-0 advantage over the Golden Eagles with the last matchup December 30, 1987.
- With it being opening week, the Knights will be the first game for both teams in the 2024-25 season.
Scouting Iona
- Iona ended last season with an 11-19 record, as it was the program’s first season under head coach Angelika Szumilo.
- The Gaels return 10 players and add six newcomers (two transfers and four freshman).
Scouting Marquette
- Marquette polished off the 2023-24 season with a 23-9 record, which saw them make it to the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
- Cara Consuegra enters her first season as head coach for the Golden Eagles, as she previously spent the last 13 seasons at the helm for Charlotte boasting a 225-169 record.
- Marquette’s roster features six returners and six transfers with all six returners on the Big East All-Academic Team in 2023-24.
A Win Would…
- Give the Knights their first win of the 2024-25 season
- Give UCF its seventh consecutive season opener victory
- Improve the overall series between Iona to 2-2
- Improve the overall series between Marquette to 2-0
- Be better than a loss
Rising to the Top
- Junior Kaitlin Peterson had a stellar debut season for the Knights, as she led the Big 12 with 20.7 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 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.
- 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 scored double digits in 27 of UCF’s 28 games last season and reached 20 points on 15 occasions.
Crashing the Boards
- Freshman Khyala Ngodu led the team in conference play last season with 6.7 rebounds per game, which ranks 11th in the conference.
- Ngodu has tallied 18 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).
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.
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.