MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – The UCF women’s basketball suffered an 80-58 loss against No. 18 West Virginia to open the New Year in the WVU Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon.
The Knights (7-5, 0-2 Big 12) fought back and forth with the Mountaineers (11-2, 1-1) until midway through the first when West Virginia went on a 7-0 run to gain a 16-point lead, 25-9. Turnovers and fouls weren’t in the Knights favor with 11 and nine, respectively. The Mountaineers continued with their scoring ways ending the first with the lead, 32-10.
The Black and Gold tightened their offense with just six turnovers in the second, but the Mountaineers kept putting pressure on with 18 points. West Virginia held the lead heading into the half, 50-16.
UCF came out of the second half and went on a 6-0 scoring run ignited by a layup from Achol Akot. The Knights continued to fight and ended the third quarter outscoring the Mountaineers, 19-15. The Knights focused on ball handling, only committing two turnovers. West Virginia continued to hold onto the lead, 65-35.
The Knights once again outscored the Mountaineers 23-15 in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough as West Virginia came away with the 80-58 win. Thirteen of the Knights’ 23 points came from turnovers as the Black and Gold recorded nine steals. UCF shot 8-14 from the field in the final quarter to record a 57.1 shooting percentage.
Khyala Ngodu led the Knights with 14 points and seven rebounds. Three others joined Ngodu in double digits as Kaitlin Peterson tallied 13, Nevaeh Brown had 12 and Emely Rodriguez scored 11. Ally Stedman dished out four assists while Brown notched four steals.
The Knights head back to Orlando for a matchup against new Big 12 Conference foe, Arizona, Saturday, Jan. 4 with tip off slated for 2 p.m. inside Addition Financial Arena.