BYU, UCF brace for high-scoring Big 12 tilt

BYU and UCF face each other for the only time during the regular season on Saturday in Orlando, Fla., in a game that carries huge NCAA Tournament implications for both teams.BYU (14-6, 5-4 Big 12) seems to be catching fire at the right time. The Cougars picked up their first Quad 1 victory of the season after outlasting Baylor 93-89 in overtime on Tuesday. Freshman Kanon Catchings turned in his best game of the season, scoring 23 points on 8-of-8 shooting off the bench, to help BYU win three straight Big 12 games for the first time since joining the league.It was a breakout moment for Catchings, who had lost his starting role after failing to score in double figures since BYU’s Big 12 opener against Arizona State.”You don’t miss a shot, I guess you can call that a breakout game,” BYU coach Kevin Young said. “Yeah, he was tremendous. Happy for him, because obviously he has had a couple of bumps in the road, and he has stayed the course.”Catchings’ game was a microcosm of BYU’s collective improvement after struggling on offense earlier in January.During BYU’s three-game winning streak, the Cougars have averaged 85.3 points per game while shooting 49.3 percent from 3-point range. BYU has made an average of 11.3 3-pointers per game in the three wins.Stopping the Cougars will be a challenge for UCF. The same story is true for BYU when it comes to the Knights.

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