William & Mary @ Central Florida preview

Injury-ravaged Central Florida looks to remain unbeaten on the season despite the absence of its top two players when the Knights host William & Mary on Saturday. UCF has won its first two games despite the absence of 7-6 center Tacko Fall and preseason All-Conference selection point guard B.J. Taylor.

While Fall is day-to-day with a hip injury, Taylor will miss at least a month with a foot injury suffered in the season-opening victory against Mercer. In Thursday's victory against Gardner-Webb, A.J. Davis picked up the slack, finishing with 15 points and 10 rebounds while 6-9 forward Chad Brown contributed 10 points, 10 rebounds for his first career double-double and added a career-high five blocked shots. Terrell Allen, a sophomore transfer from Drexel, assumed the point guard duties and played a team-high 37 minutes while finishing with 12 points, three assists and three steals as the Knights look to mesh with the new-look lineup against a Tribe team that is averaging 74.5 points on offense in the first two games. "That’s going to be a process with that right now,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins told the Orlando Sentinel. “We lost two players in the last two weeks who were in the rotation and now they’re out, so that’s changing guys’ roles a little bit and guys are trying to get comfortable. That’s gonna come.''

TV: 2 p.m. ET, ESPN3

ABOUT WILLIAM & MARY (1-1): Sophomore forward Nathan Knight is coming off a monster night in the Tribe's first victory of the season last time out against Hampton. The 6-10 forward, who was a Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team selection as a freshman last season, poured in a career-high 31 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. His 18 converted free throws on 22 attempts were both Kaplan Arena single-game records.

ABOUT CENTRAL FLORIDA (2-0): The Knights were one of the top defensive teams in the nation last season and hope to maintain that as a foundation for their success in 2017-18. UCF held opponents to 36.5 percent shooting from the floor in 2016-17 and, after struggling defensively in the season opener, the Knights limited Gardner-Webb to 35.8 percent from the floor. "I'm happy that we are starting to work in the right direction defensively getting back to UCF defense,'' Dawkins told reporters after the game.

TIP-INS

1. UCF is 16-0 when scoring 70 or more points, dating back to last season.

2. The Knights have won 11 of their last 13 games, with the only losses coming in the AAC tournament semifinals and the NIT semifinals.

3. Central Florida won the only previous meeting 69-65 in January of 1989 at Orlando.

PREDICTION: UCF 66, William & Mary 58