Kay Kay Wright’s 24 pushes Knights over Bulls in War on I-4

The Knights extended their win streak to five with a 56-48 win Wednesday night.

For the second consecutive game, defense trumped the offense and points were hard to come by.

“Defense creates our offense,” senior guard Kay Kay Wright said. “We just pride ourselves on defense.”

For the fourth straight game, the Knights held their opponent under 50 points.

The Knights struggled early to muster points, but found an early 19-3 first-half run to take the lead for majority of the game.

The Bulls rebounded with a 9-2 run to close the half and come within five points.

USF’s momentum carried into the second half as they held the lead for most of the third quarter.

However, UCF’s ability to draw fouls led to nine points from the charity stripe in the third quarter and UCF stole the lead for good.

The team went 23-35 from the line for the game, and sophomore Brittney Smith found the most success from the line, going a perfect 6-6.

“I work really hard at what I do,” Smith said. “It builds a lot of confidence in me to hit big shots.”

The team continued to generate their offense from the free throw line, but USF creeped up to within six points.

But just when it looked like USF could have a way in, Kay Kay Wright came in and shut the door with clutch buckets down the stretch.

“They needed big shots down the stretch and she knocked them down,” USF head coach Jose Fernandez said.

The win places the Knights in a tie for second place in the American with Cincinnati and has them playing their best basketball as the season winds down.

The Knights look to continue their perfection in February but face the almighty UConn for the final time in regular season conference play this Saturday. Tipoff is at 1 p.m.