After more than a week away from the hardwood the UCF men’s basketball team laces back up on Tuesday and Wednesday as they host the UCF Holiday Classic at UCF Arena.

The Knights (7-4 overall) are perfect in five games at home this season and open up against Liberty (6-6) at 7 p.m., following the 4:30 p.m. matchup between Buffalo (7-3) and Jacksonville (1-7). The semifinal game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday with the championship set for 7 p.m.

Marcus Jordan

UCF is coming off of two close losses to USF, 69-65, and No. 14 Connecticut, 60-51, in which the individual efforts of freshman Marcus Jordan earned him a share of the Conference USA Rookie of the Week award along with Jeremy Williams of UTEP.

Jordan led the team in scoring against UConn with 13 points over 28 minutes and added four rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in a losing effort. He dropped 11 points against USF as he made two from long distance, dished out three assists, grabbed two rebounds and snagged two steals against the Bulls.

Through 11 games Jordan is averaging 5.1 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 19 minutes per game off the bench.

Leading the way for the Knights so far this season have been the likes of Isaac Sosa and A.J. Tyler in scoring, A.J. Rompza in assists and steals, Dave Diakite in rebounding, and Keith Clanton in rebounding and blocked shots.

The Knights have scored wins against Massachusetts, Howard, Auburn, Drake, Albany, Newberry and Bethune-Cookman while suffering losses to Niagara and Notre Dame as well as USF and UConn.

After starting the New Year with a road game at Mississippi on Jan. 5 the C-USA schedule begins for UCF with Rice (5-6) paying a visit Jan. 9 and Marshall (10-2) coming to town Jan. 13.