On Sunday, UCF Citronauts Women’s Basketball geared up for the Space Game, hosting the Colorado Buffaloes at Addition Financial Arena. They were able to blast off to their second conference win of the year, 74-68.
Buffaloes Charge First
Colorado was leading after the 1st quarter, 19-14. They took advantage of six UCF turnovers that they were able to cash in for easy layups. With scrappy effort, the ‘Nauts kept fighting to stay close.
Mahogany Chandler-Roberts had five points in the game’s opening quarter, including her first three-pointer since the season opener on November 3rd. She finished the night with 10 on the board with six rebounds (tied for the most among the ‘Nauts).
The Citronaught defense was still tough enough to keep Colorado relatively low in shooting percentage, hitting only seven of their sixteen first-quarter attempts. The Buffs also had five of their 10 rebounds on the offensive glass.
Second-Quarter Season-Best for UCF
The tone of the game changed from staying in striking distance to taking the lead for the ‘Naughts in the second quarter. It started with back-to-back threes from Summer Yancy. Yancy had 10 points in the first half while posting a career-high in scoring with 25 (with a career-high in threes made with five), three assists, and six rebounds.
Launching on a 20-2 run that lasted around 6.5 minutes, the ‘Nauts were able to put together their highest scoring second-quarter this season with 25. This led to a 39-29 halftime lead.
However, the third quarter was a struggle once again this season for UCF. They turned the ball over seven times in that quarter while only hitting four of their 14 shots.
Colorado’s Zayana Walker had seven of her 13 points for the Buffs to rally the stampede to pull within 1 heading into the fourth quarter. Tabitha Betson also had 12 for the visiting team, while Desire Wooten led them in scoring with 15 points off the bench.
UCF was able to close out the game holding Colorado to making only one of their final seven shots on the evening. The ‘Nauts’ ability to rebound the ball 41 times compared to the Buffaloes 34 helped them control the tempo and limit opportunities
Back on the Road
The ‘Nauts travel to Texas to take on the #16 Baylor Bears. UCF’s head coach was an assistant there before taking over on the Knights’ sideline. When asked what kind of challenge the Bears posed to her squad on Wednesday, Messer laid out the challenge to be faced. “They’re a great team, and there’s no mercy for us. We’ve got to go in and we’ve got to earn it,” she said.
She also pointed out that her squad’s first conference at Arizona was on the road as well and could be valuable in preparing for this next road trip. “We’re going into a great environment at Baylor — great fan base, but our thing is Arizona had a great fan base, too. We played in front of almost 6,000 people, and I think that’s going to help us go into an environment like Baylor.”
They return home to host #13 TCU at Addition Financial Arena before facing a third straight ranked opponent in #11 Iowa State.
