The UCF (10-3) Women’s basketball team will meet the top ranked team in the nation Sunday in Orlando.
The Knights hosting UConn (12-0) on New Year’s Day at CFE Arena at 1 p.m.to open up its conference schedule and this stage could be the perfect platform for the knights to show their transformation under Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson.
Last year at this time, the Knights had three wins and 10 losses—now that record is reversed and the team feeding off its defense as they prepare to face the number one team in the country.
“I really haven’t said UConn’s name a lot in practice because I want them to be fearless coming out here,” Abrahamson-Henderson said on Friday after practice.
“[I want them to] take care of the ball and not turn it over and really know our shot clock plays. We got to know our shot clock plays because they force you out of all your sets and your offense and I just want us to be poised and not let us get rattled.”
The Huskies haven’t lost a game since 2014 and meet UCF after nearly falling to Maryland on Thursday night.
“I want to show that we can play together, that we can guard and we can score out of our sets,” Junior captain Aliyah Gregory said.
“I just want to play hard and compete –it’s always exciting to play against good competition and we’re playing against the #1 team in the nation so I am excited to go out and there and do that.”
And for the homegrown freshman point guard Kornelia ‘Kay-Kay’ Wright she knows what her team will have to do to keep pace.
“I would say to slow this team down,” Wright said. “This team wants to get out in transition, they love to get out and hit three’s in transition to slow them down and just make them play our game to stop them and slow them down—it will be a really good interesting game.”
The UCF Knights currently third in the American Conference and they intend for things to stay that way even after their match up against UConn.