Men's Basketball Opens Exhibition Season
UCF Press Release
November 12, 2002
The UCF men’s basketball team will hold its first, and only scheduled exhibition
game, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, as they welcome OBRAS/Argentina to the UCF Arena.
The team will be facing outside competition for the first time since beginning
practice nearly a month ago. It will offer head coach Kirk Speraw his
first real chance to gauge the progress of his squad and work under actual game
conditions.
“This offers an excellent opportunity for our returning players to find some
continuity and work with one another under intense conditions,” stated Speraw.
“It can be difficult to face the same people day in and day out, not to mention
getting our new guys some time on the floor.”
This season’s squad returns just five players from a team that finished tied for
fourth in the Atlantic Sun, however each returning member saw a substantial
amount of playing time and was able to contribute. Senior guard Ray Abellard,
who is the top returning scorer after averaging 13.0 points a game last season,
leads the Golden Knights. He will be joined in the backcourt by fellow senior
Al Miller, who averaged 5.4 points a game and enters the season in third
place on the all-time UCF assists list, 157 dishes out of the top spot. Seniors
Ed Dotson and Marius Boyd along with junior college transfer
Roberto Morentin should round out the starting lineup with junior Josh
Bodden as the first player off the bench. Morentin is one of 10 new faces
this season on the Golden Knights roster.
“This is a great opportunity for our basketball team to ready itself for the
upcoming season,” Speraw added. “We face a challenging schedule and the
conference figures to be just as strong, so this is an important step in
starting the season.”
Tip off for the game against OBRAS/Argentina is 7:30.
UCF will open up the regular season on the road as they head to Annapolis to
take on the Midshipmen of Navy on Fri., Nov. 22. The team will open its home
schedule when they face Niagara on Monday, Nov. 25 at UCF arena. Tip-off is
slated for 7:30 p.m.