• Final stats

ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF Knights finished their regular season with a thrashing of the East Carolina Pirates to record their 20th win of the season. UCF never lost its lead after a hot start.

The Knights (20-9, 12-4 in American Athletic Conference) defeated ECU (15-14, 7-9 in AAC) 75-54 to finish the regular season on a high note in front of their home crowd of 3,339.

“We’ve done very well in the month of January and February, and I think we put in the necessary work throughout the season and in the preseason in order to put ourselves in this position,” senior guard Aliyah Gregory said after the game. “So, it feels good to see all of our hard work paying off.”

The Knights shot efficiently, scoring the second-most points of any game they’ve played this season. UCF almost doubled the Pirates’ field-goal percentage, as the Knights shot 53 percent compared to ECU’s 28 percent.

Gregory led all scorers with 14 points on the night, and Masseny Kaba, Korneila Wright and Zakiya Saunders all contributed with double-digit points as well.

One contributing factor to the Knights’ field-goal percentage was shot selection. UCF only attempted three 3-pointers on the night compared to ECU’s 21 attempts. Inside the paint, the Knights scored 40 points, doubling ECU’s total in that category.

“I think it’s just the generation, now. Everybody wants to shoot a lot of 3s, and we only took three, and they took 21—and we won,” Knights head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said after the win. “And-1s are 3-pointers to me, and they’re actually a higher percentage shot to get to the basket.”

East Carolina started the game carelessly, as the Pirates committed five turnovers in the first quarter. Three were from Saunders’ steals, who stole the ball four times on the night. She finished the night with 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

“There’s [Saunders] knowing the system, knowing the defense, knowing the press, knowing the half-court defense, knowing the drops—just knowing everything,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “Playing for my staff for five years and knowing how we play defense—it’s tough. It’s tough to learn the press, and it’s tough to learn the matchup, and she knows it very well.”

UCF scored the first eight points of the game and shot 100 percent from the field during that hot start. UCF went on a 14-0 run later in the half to give them a 23-point lead. Headed into the locker room, the Knights had tallied 44 points, the most in any half this season.

“I think that started the whole momentum for us,” Saunders said after the win. “We just got out on our press, slowed them down a little bit, got some steals, and it just led the tempo for the rest of the game.”

Heading into the postseason, the Knights look at their recent positive performances as an advantage.

“That was kind of something [Coach] was talking to us about the past few days is that we want to get this win so it’ll lead to momentum in the conference play,” Saunders said.

Who’s Next?

The Knights will compete as the third seed in the quarterfinals of the 2017-18 AAC Tournament at noon on March 4 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Their opponent will depend on who wins between the sixth and eleventh seed in the first game of the tournament, as the Knights enjoy a bye because of their third seed.

For more on the Knights, as they prepare for the AAC tournament, follow Tommy Cardinal on Twitter at @NDR_TomCardinal.