Picture Perfect

By Bob Phillips                                                                                                                   Photos by Bill Harper



Katie Lou Samuelson broke several American Championship
Game records on Monday, including most points (40) and most
three-point field goals (10). The prolific sophomore was named
the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

UNCASVILLE—Often, watching the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team play can be about as exciting as watching your Great Aunt Nelly munching on a Granny Smith apple while waxing poetic about the good old days when Regan was president and everyone was proud to be an American. (That was long before all her teeth fell out, which makes it hysterical watching her try to eat that damn apple!) This is not a knock on the team. A more talented, athletic and cohesive unit would be hard to find. Anywhere. And it is because of this cohesion that five players—each of whom could be individual superstars on other teams—instead suppress their personal egos to function as a well-oiled, (and unbeatable) machine.

But, with a 32.4-point regular-season average margin of victory, most games are over by halftime—and many are over by the end of the first period. This makes it difficult for fans who come to see a basketball game (as opposed to simply coming to root on the Huskies as they were part of some cheerleading tournament) to focus on the competition… or, more appropriately, the lack thereof.

Such was the case this past weekend at the American Athletic Conference championships held at the Mohegan Sun Arena. Let’s face it: There is nothing resembling competition for the Huskies in this conference when the Huskies come to play. (Indeed, there is nothing resembling competition for any team challenging the Connecticut women when the Huskies come to play.) This past weekend, the so-called “Championship Tournament,” saw the Huskies effortlessly dispose of three contenders (errr… make that pretenders) by an average margin of 42 points. On Saturday, the Huskies pummeled Tulsa by 48 points (105-57). On Sunday, UCF fell victim, 78-56. And in Monday’s championship matchup with the University of South Florida, the tournament’s No. 3 seed, Katie Lou Samuelson led the Huskies to a 100-44 romp.

For all practical purposes, the Connecticut had the game won after the first period on Monday with the Huskies in total control, 30-11. By halftime, UConn had opened up a 39-point advantage, 62-23. By the time the Huskies took their foot off the gas, they owned a 40-point lead, 61-21 after three periods.

Samuelson set three championship records. With 40 points on MON, she broke the American Championship single-game scoring record. Her total was fueled by a perfect 10-for-10 performance from beyond the arc. The 10 three-pointers broke the Championship Game record for most three-pointers, as well as most treys in a Championship Tournament. She did all this in less than three quarters, exiting the game with 2:19 remaining in the third.

“I kept shooting,” said the sophomore sharpshooter, who was voted the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “It felt good, and I was getting open shots. My teammates kept getting me the ball, so I was going to keep shooting until … Actually, I was going to keep shooting!”

Kia Nurse pops in two vs. Central Florida in the
semi-finals on Saturday.

Connecticut won this game in virtually every aspect, but the Huskies turned in a particularly strong defensive effort, holding the Bulls to 33.3 percent shooting from the floor (19-for-57). Meanwhile, the Huskies shot 62.3 percent for the game, and were over 70 percent for most of the first three quarters. And Connecticut proved just as strong on defense, forcing 23 USF turnovers which were parlayed into 30 points.

While Samuelson’s game was historically good, she wasn’t the only Husky to turn in a strong game. Napheesa Collier, who shared conference Co-Player of the Year with Samuelson, turned in a balanced effort with 15 points, four assists and six boards, while Saniya Chong had 11 points and Natalie Butler chipped in with a double-double—10 points, 10 boards—off the Husky bench. Gabby Williams, the Atlantic Defensive Player of the Year, scored 12 points and dished out six assists.

Dorottya Nagy and Kitija Laksa scored 15 and 13 points respectively for USF, which fell to 24-8. It was also the third straight year the Bulls advanced to the conference tournament championship game before inevitably falling to the huskies.

With the win, the Huskies improved to 32-0, and extended their historic winning streak to 107 games.

“We made hardly any mistakes at all defensively, and that just got everything going down at the other end,” said Geno Auriemma, who was pressed to find any negatives about his team in this game, and throughout the tournament. “For the most par this season, when Lou [Samuelson] gets it going early and makes some shots early it just changes everything for our team. She just has the ability to blow wide open and the confidence that we get from that spills over to everything else.”

In the past, Auriemma has been critical of Samuelson’s defense on occasion. Not so on Monday night.

“It’s the way she played, not just the way she shot,” he continued. “That was most important to me.”

“I was playing as hard as I could on defense,” said Samuelson. “I was cutting hard. My shot kind of falls after that.”

As the Huskies return to Storrs to prepare for the NCAA Tournament (they will play the first two rounds at Gampel before moving to Bridgeport for the Regionals), they know it will be nearly impossible to replicate last night’s near perfect performance.

“We just had something going on that’s kind of hard to capture,” said Auriemma. “We were able to capture it and hold onto it for a long, long time.”

BOX SCORE

All-Championship Team

Napheesa Collier, UConn

Gabby Williams, UConn

Feyonda Fitzgerald, Temple

Maria Jespersen, USF

Kitija Laksa, USF

Most Outstanding Player

Katie Lou Samuelson, UConn

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