UConn-Central Florida Game Preview
UConn (13-0, 1-0) vs Central Florida (8-4, 1-0 AAC)
Wednesday, January 1, 4:00 pm
CFE Arena, Orlando FL
Probable Starters
UConn Huskies
| #4 Moriah Jefferson | 5-7 G, So | 10.7 pts | 4.7 asst | 2.8 reb |
| #14 Bria Hartley | 5-10 G, Sr | 14. pts | 4.9 asst | 4.1 reb |
| #23 Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis | 6-0 F, Jr | 11.8 pts | 1.0 asst | 3.0 reb |
| #30 Breanna Stewart | 6-4 F, So | 18.7 pts | 2.8 asst | 8.0 reb |
| #31 Stefanie Dolson | 6-5 C, Sr | 13.4 pts | 3.9 asst | 9.9 reb |
Other Key Players
| #13 Brianna Banks | 5-9 G, Jr | 5.8 pts | 2.2 asst | 1.7 reb |
| #41 Kiah Stokes | 6-3 C, Jr | 6.3 pts | 0.7 asst | 7.8 reb |
| #3 Morgan Tuck | 6-2 F, So | 6.2 pts | 1.2 asst | 2.0 reb |
| #12 Saniya Chong | 5-8 G, Fr | 6.9 pts | 1.6 asst | 2.4 reb |
Central Florida
| #23 Briahanna Jackson | 5-4 G, So | 17.6 pts | 2.3 asst | 4.8 reb |
| #5 Zykria Lewis | 5-8 G, Fr | 11.6 pts | 1.1 asst | 3.0 reb |
| #20 Sara Djassi | 5-11 G, Sr | 11.3 pts | 2.4 asst | 3.6 reb |
| #42 Stephanie Taylor | 6-2 F, Jr | 7.6 pts | 0.3 asst | 7.3 reb |
| #13 Brittni Montgomery | 6-3 F, RJr | 6.6 pts | 0.1 asst | 9.8 reb |
Other Key Players
| #2 Andrea Hines | 5-7 G, Jr | 12.0 pts | 0.0 asst | 10.0 reb |
| #55 Erika Jones | 6-2 F/C, Sr | 4.7 pts | 4.7 asst | 1.7 reb |
| #4 Jordan Jackson | 5-9 G, Fr | 2.0 pts | 0.6 asst | 0.9 reb |
Overview
The Huskies hit the road again to take on a new conference-mate, Central Florida, in their first ever meeting. UConn is coming off an uninspired win over Cincinnati while Central Florida just celebrated head coach Joi Williams’ 150th career victory after a win over Houston.
When Williams took over the head coach job in 2007, UCF had just finished an 8-22 season. In her first year, UCF improved to 10-20 but in her third year, with a team picked to finish last in Conference-USA, UCF stunned the rest of the league by winning four games in consecutive days to win the C-USA tournament and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. USF lost in the first round but by only 5 points to ACC power North Carolina. UCF won a second C-USA tournament title in 2011 and lost in the championship game in 2013. Clearly, Williams was not some recycled scrub hired only to fill an open coaching position but a quality hire.
The UCF Knights (yes, more Knights) possess an electrifying player in Briahanna Jackson, a guard whose size (5-4) doesn’t keep her from putting up some big numbers. Jackson has scored 34 points vs Georgia State, 31 vs Flagler (Flagler?), and 24 vs Houston. UConn’s guards cannot get lazy around this kid, either, as Jackson has 44 steals for the season, or 3.7 per game. This dyamo even has 8 blocks, which makes me think she’s one of those high-energy players who seems to be everywhere on the floor at once. That may be a double-edged sword, though, as Jackson also leads her teams in fouls, having fouled out once this year already, and is second in turnovers (3.8/game, 0.6 assist/turnover ratio). The Briahanna Jackson-Moriah Jefferson matchup sounds like a particularly juicy one that should be lots of fun to watch. I would expect the taller Bria Hartley to guard her as well.
Freshman guard Zykira Lewis stepped into the starting lineup only a few games ago, replacing the junior Andrea Hines. In looking at stats only, Hines seems like the steadier player with more assists and fewer turnovers per minute than Lewis, but Lewis adds more of a scoring punch and is more of a threat from the three point line. Hines still played about 30 minutes a game after losing her starting spot; perhaps Coach Williams feels that her team gets out of the starting blocks with more scoring oomph from Lewis.
The UCF player that sees the most time on the floor is JUCO transfer Sara Djassi, a small forward that has more assists than either of the starting guards. Djassi also has the most turnovers on the team which makes me think she has the ball in her hands a lot. She puts up a lot of shots but makes only 32% of them. Jackson, Lewis, and Djassi take almost 2/3 of UCF’s shots. It’s not like they’re shooting lights out, either, as they make a combined 37% but they make up for it in volume.
Brittni Montgomery and Stephanie Taylor are great rebounders but UCF clearly runs a guard-oriented offense so their scoring numbers are fairly modest. And on a team that fouls a lot, both are among the most frequent offenders, making me wonder if it will be a short afternoon for these young ladies. If I were Geno Auriemma, I would have UConn post players go right at the UCF posts until UCF can stop them. I just don’t see that happening.
Bottom Line
In many ways, USF’s stats remind me a lot of Cincinnati’s. I haven’t seen UCF play, but given the dearth of assists (UCF is 9th out of 10 AAC teams with 10 assists per game), my impression is of an uptempo, guard-oriented team that thrives off of steals and rebounds to fuel the fast break. Will they be as disciplined as Cincinnati? I don’t know, although the turnover numbers make me think maybe not.
I have to think there will be some jitters on UCF’s part, playing a multi National Championship winning team for the first time. Playing in Orlando will help the Knights but unless half of the UConn team decides to stay in Disney World during the game, this should be a similar result as the Cincinnati game, hopefully without the sleepwalking on the part of the Huskies.
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