The Rundown
- The Knights head to the Lonestar State for the regular season finale against Houston Sunday at 3 p.m.
- This will be the second matchup between the two teams, as the Black and Gold came out on top, 70-56, inside Addition Financial Arena on February 1.
- Houston is fifth in the Big 12 conference, averaging 5.5 steals per game.
- UCF tallies 18.19 free throw attempts per game, good enough to rank them third in the league.
Scouting Houston
- Houston enters the matchup with a 5-23 overall record and are 1-16 in the Big 12.
- Head coach Ronald Hughey is in his 11th season as head coach, having spent his entire head coaching career with the Cougars.
- Scoring duo, Laila Blair and Gigi Cooke run the squad’s offense, splitting a total of 660 points between the two of them; Blair (336) and Cooke (324). Blair also leads in assists tallying 67 assists on the season.
- Kierra Merchant and Peyton McFarland hold things down for the Cougs defense, each swatting down 27 blocks this season. Merchant leads in steals as well, nabbing 68 on the season, to rank third in the Big 12.
A Win Would…
- Improve the Knights to 11-17 on the season
- Give UCF a 24-8 all-time record against Houston
- Give the Black and Gold their first Big 12 road win of the season
- Be better than a loss
Young Talent
- The Knights feature the youngest teams in the Big 12 with four freshmen in the regular rotation on the court.
- The quartet of Adeang Ring, Emely Rodriguez, Summer Yancy and Mahogany Chandler-Roberts all have played at least 15 games this season.
- Rodriguez is having a stellar freshman season with 22 games played and has earned the starting nod 16 times along with earning Big 12 Freshman of the Week on November 25.
- Ring has stepped up recently earning a career-high 12 points against Oklahoma State (1/18). She has played in 20 games this season.
- Yancy has played in 19 games this season, as she missed seven games due to an injury in the middle of season.
- Chandler-Roberts has played in 26 games this season and has earned the starting nod eight times.
Back-to-Back 20-plus
- Nevaeh Brown has stepped it up on the court recording back-to-back 20-plus point games.
- Against Iowa State, Brown tallied 23 points and went 3-6 from beyond the arc.
- In the most recent matchup against Baylor, the North Carolina native tied her career-high with 25 points and went a perfect 12-12 from the free-throw line to tie the school record.
Big 12 Weekly Awards Sweep
- For the first time in UCF women’s basketball history, the Knights swept the Big 12 conference awards with Kaitlin Peterson earning Player of the Week and Emely Rodriguez tabbed Freshman of the Week (11/25).
- Peterson tallied 79 points over three games with an average of 26.3 points per game.
- In the Nov. 22 matchup against SIUE, Peterson tied her career high by recording 35 points, going 3-5 from beyond the arc and 11-17 from the field.
- The Eufaula, Alabama, native tallied her 30th double-digit game at UCF on Sunday when she scored 21 points.
- Rodriguez recorded another strong week in her rookie season with 35 points over three games.
- The La Romana, Dominican Republic, native tied her career high with 18 points in the Knights' 80-55 win against Florida A&M on Sunday.
- The freshman currently averages 13.5 points per game and is ranked first among freshmen in the Big 12 in scoring.
1K Points Club
- Kaitlin Peterson and Nevaeh Brown both surpassed 1,000 career points this season.
- Peterson eclipsed 1,000 career points against BYU (2/5), she made 945 of those points as a Knight in the past two seasons.
- This season Peterson has put up 30+ points on four occasions.
- Brown tallied her 1,000th career point against Arizona State on Feb. 12, assisting the Knights to an 85-76 win.
80-plus Magic
- Since Messer took over as head coach in the 2022-23 season, UCF is 11-1 (0.917) when scoring 80 or more points in a game.
- The Knights have recorded eight 80-plus point games this season, the last time this was achieved was in the 1995-96 season where they grabbed nine under head coach Jerry Richardson in the A-Sun conference.
- Messer is the fifth coach in program history to document a season with at least eight 80-plus point games.
- The Black and Gold tallied a season-high 93 points against Texas Southern on Dec. 7. This marks the fifth 90-plus point win game for Messer, the fourth most in program history behind Beverley Knight (8), Joe Sanchez (8), and Nancy Little (6).
- Messer got her first 100-plus point win in the 2023-24 season opener against Bethune-Cookman winning 101-63.
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
- Kaitlin Peterson once again leads the Knights in scoring with 20.7 points per game and is ranked No. 2 in the Big 12 and 15th in the NCAA.
- Peterson has recorded double-digits in points in the past nine consecutive games.
- She recorded a career-high 39 points at Texas Southern (12/7), which ranks 19th in the NCAA.
- She has recorded 21 games in double digits this season and reached 35-plus points on two occasions.
- The senior had a stellar debut season (23-24) for the Knights, as she led the Big 12 with 20.7 points per game.
- The Eufaula, Alabama native 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
- Achol Akot is first on the team with 6.9 rebounds and ranks 9th in the Big 12.
- Akot recorded a double-double against Stetson (11/16) with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
- The sophomore has tallied three double-doubles this season, which leads the team.
Knights in the Rankings
- As a team, UCF is ranked in the top 5 of the Big 12 conference rankings in three categories.
- 3rd: Free throw attempts per game (18.89)
- 4th: Rebounds (offensive) per game (12.7)
- 5th: Free throws made per game (13.37)