Baylor
UCF
WBB Set for Wednesday Night Tilt at UCF
1/28/2025 12:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball
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RV/RV BAYLOR BEARS (16-5, 6-2 Big 12) Location: Waco, Texas Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Nicki Collen (Marquette, 1998) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
RV/RV BAYLOR BEARS (16-5, 6-2 Big 12) vs UCF KNIGHTS (7-11, 0-8 Big 12) Jan. 29, 2025 • 6 p.m. CT Orlando, Fla. • Addition Financial Arena (10,000) LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast WATCH: ESPN+ TALENT: Scott Adams (PxP), BJ Taylor (Analyst), Hannah Russo (Sideline) LISTEN: Baylor Sports Media Network via FOX Sports Radio 93.9FM in Central Texas and worldwide at centexsportsfan.com. Talent: Derek Smith (pxp), Lori Fogleman (analyst) Baylor Social Media:    |
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UCF KNIGHTS (7-11, 0-8 Big 12) Location: Orlando, Fla. Conference/Affiliation: Big 12 Head Coach: Sytia Messer (Arkansas, 2000) Roster | Stats | Game Notes (PDF) |
Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
ORLANDO, Fla. – Nicki Collen is not sure which UCF basketball team she will see when her Baylor team (16-4, 6-2) faces the Knights (7-11, 0-8) at 6 p.m. CT Wednesday at Addition Financial Arena.
Will it be the UCF team that took the Bears down to the wire in a 77-74 Baylor victory last year at Foster Pavilion? Or will it be closer to the one that had its top two active scoring leaders missing in a 90-56 blowout loss on the road at Iowa State?
"I don't know who will be available," said Collen, whose team is coming off back-to-back losses to top-10 teams, losing to TCU, 80-75, on Sunday. "Will Kaitlin Peterson be available? Will Emely Rodriguez be available? So, to me, it's more about us. What are the actions that they run, and are we prepared to be elite in our defensive execution in those actions? And are we poised, and do we take care of the ball against their zones and get good shots?
Peterson, a 5-9 guard who transferred from Indiana last year, was the only Big 12 player to record six 30-point games last season and had 32 versus Baylor. But Peterson and Rodriguez, a 6-foot freshman, both sat out the last game with an illness.
"Kaitlin Peterson basically put a 30 piece on us last year. We know she's capable of going crazy if we're not in her space and give her easy stuff downhill," Collen said. "And once she gets going, she's scoring from everywhere. She was hitting the 3, she's going to play to that mid-range kind of float game."
In last year's matchup in Waco, Peterson was 5-of-6 from outside the arc and scored 32 points before fouling out in the last minute. Darianna Littlepage-Buggs led the Bears with 24 points, while Sarah Andrews had her second-career double-double with 11 points and 10 assists, knocking down four free throws in the last 30 seconds.
On a day when Baylor struggled offensively, shooting 37% overall and just 8-of-26 from 3-point range, Andrews was an efficient 5-of-9 from outside the arc and scored 21 points. The Bears also got a season high-tying 14 points from Florida transfer Aliyah Matharu and 11 points from Jada Walker in Sunday's 80-75 loss at TCU.
"I liked what Aliyah brought to the table," Collen said of Matharu, who upped her scoring average to 6.4 points per game. "That was a big jump for her, not only offensive productivity, but getting up and picking Hailey Van Lith, getting on the offensive glass. She played with good energy, gave us another playmaker out there. I thought that was a big positive."
Collen indicated she does expect more out of 6-3 senior Aaronette Vonleh, a Colorado transfer who had a combined 11 points and five rebounds with five turnovers in last week's losses to UCLA and TCU, which both feature a 6-7 center in Lauren Betts and the Horned Frogs' Sedona Prince.
"We have to get more out of Nettie," Collen said. "Regardless of the opponent, we need more rebounding. Sedona is a hard player to play against. Lauren Betts is a hard player to play against. But we've got to find ways to roll behind them. We've got to find ways to cut behind them. And not necessarily score on post-ups, but on the move better than we did, so that we can neutralize. We just weren't able to neutralize those positions over the last two games."
Vonleh could have potentially faced a similar threat in 6-5 center Hannah Gusters, a well-traveled player who had made previous stops at Baylor, LSU and Oklahoma State. But Gusters has left the team after averaging 12.8 points and 6.3 rebounds through the first 14 games of the season.
"They were playing around Hannah Gusters," Collen said. "And now, with her not on the roster, they don't have that presence. Now, they become a little more guard-heavy in their attack, playing downhill, using their speed and athleticism. They have players that can score."
Third-year UCF head coach Sytia Messer was an assistant on Baylor's 2019 national championship team and was recruited to Arkansas and coached by Nicki's husband, Tom Collen, who was an assistant coach with the Razorbacks.
"I tried to keep Sytia when I got this job. I worked really hard to try to get her to stay," Nicki said. "I thought she was a big part of the recruiting success here and an elite human being. Happy for her that a year after she left here, she was a head coach. Obviously, she made a good decision. But Sytia is an elite human being, and they've done a good job recruiting."
Wednesday's game will be streamed by ESPN+, with Scott Adams, BJ Taylor and Hannah Russo calling the action.
Baylor returns home for three of its next four at Foster Pavilion, hosting Cincinnati (12-6, 4-4) at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Game Notes-
• BU stays on the road for its third-straight game, this time landing in Orlando, Fla., to face UCF at Addition Financial Arena on Wednesday night.
• Baylor has its best start to conference play in the Nicki Collen era through eight games with a 6-2 record.
• Baylor and UCF are facing off for just the fifth time ever, with Baylor taking all four of the prior matchups.
• BU has only faced UCF once before in Orlando, but has a pair of appearances at the UCF Holiday Classic (1988, 1992) in the record book. In the game against, then, Central Florida, Baylor won 110-67 on Dec. 31, 1992.
• UCF is still in search of its first conference win of the season, already facing TCU, West Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, Cincinnati, TCU, Oklahoma State and Iowa State.
• Kaitlin Peterson far outpaces the Knights in scoring, averaging 20.7 a game shooting 41.1% from the floor. Peterson's average ranks her 17th nationally and third in the league.
• Head coach Sytia Messer spent eight seasons in Waco as an assistant coach in the Mulkey era (2013-2021) before being named head coach in Orlando in 2022. With BU, Messer won eight conference regular season titles, six conference tournament titles and the 2019 National Championship.
• BU dropped its second consecutive game in a Saturday afternoon contest against No. 9 TCU in Fort Worth, 80-75. The decision gave TCU its first win over the Bears since 1990, snapping a 37-win streak for Baylor.
• Nearly mounting a comeback after being down by as many as 22 points halfway through the third, the bid fell just short to give BU its first road conference loss of the season in the second of two consecutive losses, the team's first skid this campaign.
• With a season-low four turnovers, the second-lowest of the Collen era, the Bears were led by Sarah Andrews with 21 points with five 3-pointers that matched her season best.
• Florida transfer Aliyah Matharu recorded 21 quality minutes in the contest, ending the day +19 in the point differential while on the court after hitting a pair of big threes.
• BU has two players chasing 500 career rounds: Aaronette Vonleh is lacking 35 and Bella Fontleroy needs 37.
• Darianna Littlepage-Buggs is 35 points away from being BU's sixth active player with 1k points at the DI level.
