The UCF women’s basketball team overcame a first quarter deficit and beat the Virginia Cavaliers 60-34 at Addition Financial Arena on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers scored the first nine points and held a 13-1 lead, but the Knights began to respond with minutes left in the first quarter. Virginia shot 50% from field goal range, while UCF 10%, in the first quarter — the Knights trailed by eight heading into the second quarter.
After the game, UCF junior guard Diamond Battles credited the team’s ability to focus on the game plan and play defensively heading into the second quarter.
“We needed to turn up our energy, we needed to calm down — we had a couple jitters, it’s the first game so everybody’s a little riled up,” Battles said. “Focus on our game plan, play defense … make them feel uncomfortable, that’s what got us going.”
The lead did not change again after the the Knights responded in the second quarter.
Battles finished the game with a career-high 17 points, while senior forward and guard Courtajia Sanders contributed nine and sophomore guard Alisha Lewis was responsible for 13 points.
In the last three quarters of the game, the Knights scored 55 of their 60 points and Sanders credits the defense — the senior said defense is the team’s style.
“I think our defense led us to those transition layups,” Sanders said. “When we turned up our defense, we got some steals and some tips and some layups by playing more aggressive on defense.”
The Knights finished the game scoring 46% from the field, while the Cavaliers scored 31%. Virginia didn’t make a single 3-pointer during the contest, while UCF shot 57% from beyond the arc, making 4-of-7 shots in the game.
The Knights scored 27 points off turnovers, while the Cavaliers scored 7 points.
UCF head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said the team adjusted after the first quarter, made both defensive and offensive changes, and saw results throughout the rest of the game.
Abrahamson-Henderson said she told the team how proud she was in the locker room after the game.
“This has really been a hard time for everybody, not just us, but them too,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “And anybody that’s playing right now because we haven’t had the amount of time to prepare for any game, let alone any other team.”
Abrahamson-Henderson said it speaks to the junior and senior leadership on the team and what the players have done to catch everyone up to speed and get ready.
Battles said overall, she is happy with the team’s performance.
“We played together, we played hard, we had a lot of energy,” Battles said. “We basically followed the game plan. We got what we needed to get — we got a dub.”
The Knights opened the season with the victory over the Cavaliers and move to 1-0 overall, while Virginia falls to 0-1 overall with the loss.
The Knights will next travel to face the LSU Tigers on Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
