UCF will continue its road trip to the desert against first-year Big 12 opponents, meeting Arizona State on Tuesday night in Tempe, Ariz.
The Knights (11-4, 2-2) are coming off an 88-80 loss to Arizona in Tucson on Saturday. They will face the Sun Devils (10-5, 1-3) in the first-ever meeting between the teams.
UCF is led by Keyshawn Hall’s averages of 16.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Darius Johnson (14.9 points) and Jordan Ivy-Curry (14.7) also are top scorers for a team that is shooting a lower field-goal percentage against its opponents in both overall shooting (41.7 percent vs. 43.8 percent) and 3-point attempts (33.0 percent vs. 34.7 percent).
Hall is a transfer from George Mason, and Ivy-Curry joined the program from Texas-San Antonio. The Knights have shot under 40 percent from the field in their last three games, with a 1-2 mark in those three contests.
That includes a 20.6 field-goal percentage in a 99-48 shellacking by then-No. 7 Kansas on Jan. 5.
“I don’t think there’s ever an excuse that you can’t go out there and give a good effort,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said when asked about the long trip to Arizona. “We all are adjusting to that.”
The Sun Devils have lost back-to-back Big 12 games after the 72-66 overtime loss to Baylor on Saturday.
Against UCF, one of the players the Sun Devils will be looking at is Jayden Quaintance, who at 17 is one of the conference’s impact freshmen. He is averaging 9.1 points and a team-leading 8.4 rebounds per game for Arizona State.
Quaintance already has 44 blocked shots — achieved in just 15 games — and that number stands second in Arizona State history for a freshman.
The Sun Devils’ leading scorers are Basheer Jihad (12.9 points per game), Joson Sanon (12.8) and BJ Freeman (12.4). Freeman’s 22 points led Arizona State in the loss to Baylor.
“This league is strong, and you’ve got to get used to doing better,” Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley said after the Baylor game, adding that he is looking for consistent play in both halves of games.
The Sun Devils, too, are dealing with the extensive long travel in the far-reaching Big 12, though Hurley doesn’t want to use it as an excuse for losing.
“We had a disaster class of travel, and it’s nothing against … things happen in life,” Hurley said of his team’s recent trip to play at Kansas last Wednesday. The team got back to the Phoenix area at 3 a.m. Thursday morning, and that could have left the Sun Devils with a travel hangover.
“We just didn’t look like the team that I’m used to seeing,” Hurley added about the team effort against Baylor.
–Field Level Media
