Dec. 20, 2011
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By Doug Richards
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - The UCF men's basketball team will take its four-game winning streak on the road Wednesday when the Knights meet host Louisiana-Lafayette. The non-league contest from the Cajundome in Lafayette, La.,will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern.
The Knights (8-2) have won seven of their last eight contests. On Saturday, UCF posted an impressive 61-53 victory over an Old Dominion team that has participated in two-straight NCAA Tournaments. Junior forward Keith Clanton (Orlando, Fla.) totaled 23 points and a career-best 16 rebounds in the win. Junior guard Marcus Jordan (Chicago, Ill.) added 17 points for the Knights.
On the year, Jordan ranks second in Conference USA in scoring at 17.1 points per game, followed by Clanton, who is third at 16.7 points an outing. The Knights are seeking their first road win of the campaign. They have a pair of victories away from Orlando, having topped No. 4 UConn and College of Charleston at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas in November.
Louisiana-Lafayette is 5-8 this season. The Ragin' Cajuns have won four of five contests at home.
Fans can listen to the game on the UCF IMG Sports Network and its flagship station, 740 The Game in Orlando. Audio can be heard on UCFAthletics.com as part of the All-Access package.
After facing the Ragin' Cajuns, UCF will have a few days off for Christmas before hosting Stetson on Dec. 29 to open the UCF Holiday Classic.
Series History
• Louisiana has an 8-2 edge in the all-time series with the Knights, but UCF has won the last two matchups
• The teams met a year ago in Orlando, and the Knights rolled to a 79-58 victory over the Ragin Cajuns' on Dec. 15, 2010
• The Knights led 35-28 at intermission, and then pulled away by outscoring the Cajuns 44-30 after the break
• Keith Clanton totaled 28 points in the win, and he shot 10-of-14 from the free-throw line
• Dwight McCombs added 13 points and a game-high nine boards for the Knights
• UCF forced 20 turnovers in the victory
• UCF and Louisiana were both members of the Sun Belt early in the 1990s
• The Knights are 0-4 against the Ragin Cajuns' in Lafayette
• Louisiana head coach Bob Marlin is 2-2 against the Knights as his Sam Houston State teams won games in 2005 and 2008 over the Knights
• UCF also defeated Sam Houston State in 2009
• UCF will be playing a non-conference game in Louisiana for the first time since 2002 when it participated in the University Hoops Classic in New Orleans, an event that was hosted by future Conference USA foe Tulane
• UCF will be meeting the first of two-straight former conference opponents when it plays Louisiana
• The Knights' next game is Dec. 29 against former Atlantic Sun rival Stetson
Last Time Out
• Keith Clanton totaled 23 points and a career high 16 rebounds Saturday as UCF used a strong defensive effort to post a 61-53 victory over visiting Old Dominion
• The Knights limited the Monarchs to only 32.2 percent shooting from the floor and a 19.0-percent effort from 3-point range
• Marcus Jordan added 17 points in the win
Impressive Victories
• The win over Old Dominion, a team that won 27 games in 2010-11, was the fourth of the campaign for the Knights against a 2011 NCAA Tournament or NIT squad
• The Monarchs played in their second-straight NCAA Tournament a year ago
• UCF also owns victories over defending national champion UConn and NIT participants College of Charleston and Bethune-Cookman
• The Knights' two losses have both come to squads that competed in the postseason a year ago: Florida State (NCAA) and Harvard (NIT)
Streaking Again
• The Knights have won seven of their last eight games and four-straight contests overall
• UCF is certainly familiar with winning streaks as the squad opened the 2010-11 campaign with 14-consecutive victories
Road Trip Time
• The Knights are seeking their first road win of the season
• UCF has played just one true road game so far, falling at No. 24 Florida State on Nov. 14
• The Knights have recorded two victories away from Orlando though, picking up wins over College of Charleston and No. 4 UConn at the Battle 4 Atlantis in November in the Bahamas
• After facing the Ragin' Cajuns, UCF will not play another game on the road until Jan. 7 at East Carolina
Going for 30
• Donnie Jones enters the game at Louisiana with a 29-14 mark with the Knights and is seeking his 30th victory as UCF's head coach
• Jones, who is in his second year at UCF, spent the previous three campaigns as the head coach at Marshall
Finishing Strong
• UCF has outscored all but two of its 10 opponents in the second half this season as the Knights are finishing their games in strong fashion
• The Knights own a +4.8 scoring margin after intermission, when they are shooting 46.4 percent overall
• UCF is shooting just 36.4 percent overall in the first half when they own a +0.1 scoring margin
Scoring Threats
• Thanks to Marcus Jordan and Keith Clanton, UCF is the only team in Conference USA that has two players averaging at least 15.0 points per game
• Jordan is averaging a team-high 17.1 points, followed by Clanton with 16.7 points
• Jordan is second in the league in points per game, with Clanton ranking third
Top 20
• In 33 games a year ago, Keith Clanton recorded at least 20 points five times
• This season, in only 10 contests, the junior has already recorded four 20-point games
• His most recent 20-point outing came in Saturday's win over Old Dominion when he totaled 23 points
Getting to the Glass
• Keith Clanton is averaging a team-best 9.4 rebounds per game this season and has recorded at least 10 rebounds in four contests
• The junior continues to improve on the glass as he averaged 7.7 boards last year and 6.8 as a freshman in 2009-10
Getting Closer
• Marcus Jordan needs only six points to reach the 900-point mark for his career
• Both Jordan and Keith Clanton (947 points) should reach the 1,000-point plateau soon
• Only nine players since UCF moved to the Division I ranks in 1984 have recorded over 1,000 points during their careers
On Line
• In Saturday's win over Old Dominion, Marcus Jordan scored 17 points, and nine of those points came at the free-throw line
• The Monarchs made only 11 free throws as a team
• This year, 26.2 percent of Jordan's points have come from the charity stripe, where he is 36-of-49 (73.5 percent)
• For his career, Jordan ranks sixth at UCF with 275 made free throws and ninth with 368 attempts
Up Next
• The Knights will begin play at the UCF Holiday Classic on Dec. 29, hosting local rival Stetson
• James Madison and Rhode Island are also competing in the two-day event
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