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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Collier, Samuelson Named American Co-Players of the Year; Auriemma Co-Coach of the Year

Napheesa Collier (left) and Katie Lou Samuelson have been named American
Athletic Conference co-Players, while Geno Auriemma is the top coach.

UNCASVILLE – After leading the No. 1 UConn women’s basketball program to its 23^rd regular season conference title and ninth perfect regular season, Husky head coach Geno Auriemma has been named the American Athletic Conference's Co-Coach of the Year (along with Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza) it was announced by the league on Friday. In addition, Husky sophomores Napheesa Collier (O’Fallon, Mo.) and Katie Lou Samuelson (Huntington Beach, Calif.) share the conference's Co-Players of the Year accolades.

For Auriemma, it was his fourth-consecutive CoY nod (and 14th overall, counting 10 in The Big East) after guiding the Huskies to a perfect 29-0 overall record. The Huskies remain undefeated all-time in American Athletic Conference play after delivering a spotless 16-0 record this season, while outscoring AAC opponents this season by an average of 40.5 points per game. Under Auriemma’s guidance, the Huskies surpassed their previous NCAA record of 90-conseutive games won and now own the two longest win streaks in college basketball history.

In his 32-year tenure, Auriemma has transformed a program with only one winning season, to its current state, which includes 11 national titles, 17 Final Fours, six perfect seasons and 44 conference titles. Auriemma was named a 2017 Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the year national semifinalist, as announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club on Friday. He has received said honor seven times in his coaching career, most recently in 2015-16.

Collier and Samuelson share Player of the Year honors for the first time in UConn history. The sophomore duo joins the group of 12 previous Huskies who have received the recognition. This marks the fourth-straight year that a Husky has earned Player of the Year after former UConn standout Breanna Stewart brought home the title the last three consecutive seasons. Collier and Samuelson were both unanimous selections to the All-Conference First Team as they both currently average over 20 points a game.

At 20.7 points per game, Samuelson leads the team and the league in scoring. Her 93 three-point field goals made are the most of any player in the conference and the seventh most in the nation. A three-time AAC Player of the Week honoree, Samuelson scored 94 points over a three-game span this season, including back-to-back 30-plus performances. She boasted a career-high 34 points on the road at Tulsa on Jan. 17, shooting 13-18 from the floor and a remarkable 7-12 from three-point range. Samuelson was the third Husky this season to eclipse the 1,000-career-point mark after she recorded 16 points in the regular season finale at USF.

Collier is second on the team and in the league in scoring, averaging 20.4 points per contest. She leads the Huskies in rebounds (260) and blocks (56) and is second in steals (52). Her 68.6 field-goal percentage is the second-best percentage in the nation and the top overall in the conference. In UConn’s regular season finale at USF, Collier topped her career-high from less than a week prior, accumulating 39 points on 15-19 shooting. The 39 points marked the fourth-highest single-game total ever scored by a Husky and was only seven-points shy of Nykesha Sales’ school record.

The Huskies will kick off the postseason on Saturday, March 4, when they face Tulsa, 60-55 winners over Memphis in the first round. Tip-off at the Mohegan Sun Arena is at 2 p.m., and the game will be streamed live on ESPN3.

—Staff Reports

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Wolf Pack Top T-Birds in OT

                                                                                                            

By Chris Kohler                                                               Photos courtesy Chris Rutsch/Hartford Wolf Pack

Pavel Buchnevich (89) scored two goals—including the game-winner in
OT—to give the Wolf Pack a 4-3 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds.

HARTFORD – Pavel Buchnevich’s second goal of the game—a power-play strike with 16.4 seconds left in overtime—gave the Hartford Wolf Pack a 4-3 victory over the Springfield Thunderbirds before 1,788 fans at the XL Center on Wednesday night. Brandon Halverson made 26 saves in the Hartford net to get the win, and Matt Carey and Dan Catenacci also scored for the Wolf Pack.  Steven Kampfer had three assists. Chase Balisy tied the game for the Thunderbirds with 19.4 seconds remaining in regulation, and Dryden Hunt and Jace Hawryluk had the other Springfield goals.  Reto Berra made 34 saves.

Springfield opened the scoring 4:51 into the contest.  Hunt fired a shot that Halverson managed to reject. Hunt, however, was able to follow his shot and convert on the rebound opportunity to make the score 1-0. Hartford responded just 33 seconds later, at 5:24, as Carey chased down a rebound of a shot off the stick of Kampfer, and flung it towards the goal to beat Berra and even the score at one.

With a minute remaining in the period, the puck made its way to Marek Hrivik, who deposited it into the back of the Springfield net. Unfortunately for the Wolf Pack, the referees determined that defenseman Ryan Graves was guilty of a hand pass that discredited the goal.

After a scoreless second period, the Wolf Pack offense displayed some beautiful chemistry 1:49 into the third. Nicklas Jensen found Buchnevich, who then passed to the newly-acquired Catenacci for the goal, to make the score 2-1 in favor of Hartford. At 5:13, the Pack opened up a two-goal advantage when Jensen and Buchnevich teamed up again. Jensen skated the puck down the left side of the ice before firing a cross-slot pass that made its way to Buchnevich, who easily netted the puck.

The T-Birds stopped the hemorrhaging with a tally of their own less than two minutes later. Hawryluk buried his sixth goal of the season from the left circle, with the assist credited to winger Anthony Greco at 7:00, cutting the Hartford lead to 3-2.

Springfield pulled Berra late in the third period and the strategy paid off when, after Mackenzie Weegar threw the puck at the net from the right-wing boards, Balisy deflected it past Halverson at 19:40, tying the game at 3-3 as time expired after regulation.

In the extra session, Balisy turned from hero to goat when he picked up a tripping penalty at 3:14. Buchnevich, who was tripped by Balisy, ended matters soon thereafter when he fired the game-winner high into the net from the right side of the slot, beating Berra to the short side at 4:43.

“We’re happy with the way it went today,” said Jensen after the game. “Obviously we would’ve liked to win in regulation, but we got the win and that’s all that matters.”

Catenacci, who was acquired by the Rangers from Buffalo Tuesday, in exchange for Wolf Pack captain Mat Bodie, said, “The guys, the coaches, and the whole staff have been first class and made me feel like part of the team already. They made it very easy for me to adjust quickly.”

Next up for the Wolf Pack will a date with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the top minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, who will visit the XL Center on Saturday afternoon. First puck drops at 3 p.m., and the first 3,000 fans through the turnstiles will receive a special Wolf Pack Mark Twain bobblehead, presented by XFINITY. Saturday is also “Military Appreciation Day,” with the Wolf Pack wearing special military-themed jerseys that will be auctioned off. Proceeds will benefit military-related charities.

Buchnevich Recalled

Back in the New York groove: Pavel Buchnevich.

On Thursday, New York Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton announced that Buchnevich has been recalled. The 21-year-old forward had been assigned to Hartford on Feb. 28, and has recorded five points (three goals, two assists) and a plus-two rating in four games with Hartford this season.

The 6-2, 193-pounder has skated in 26 games with the Rangers this season, registering six goals and nine assists for 15 points, along with a plus-four rating and 13 penalty minutes. He recorded his first career NHL assist/point while making his NHL debut on Oct. 13 against the New York Islanders, and he registered his first career NHL goal on Nov. 5 at Boston.

Husky Women’s Basketball a Major Hit on SNY

UConn women's basketball has scored record-braking ratings in SNY's
Connecticut and metro-New York markets this season.

Bob Phillips with Staff Reports

NEW YORK-Thanks to SNY, the UConn women’s basketball team has become “Metro-New York’s Team.” SNY, perhaps best known as home as the television home of the New York Mets, enjoyed double-digit ratings increases in the Hartford-New Haven market for all of the network’s UConn women’s basketball programming—the highest total viewership in that market since the 2012-13 season.

Live broadcasts of Huskies women hoops on SNY averaged a 6.00 household rating in Hartford-New Haven, a 21 percent increase over the 2015-2016 season, and a 7 percent over the average for the previous seasons combined. The live game performance was SNY’s highest of the last four seasons. 
But the popularity of all things Husky women’s basketball went far beyond live game telecasts.

SNY’s pre- and post-game shows also experienced huge gains in Connecticut. The UConn Women’s Basketball Pre-Game Show delivered a 1.80 household rating, while the postgame show had a 2.85 rating. These figures represent a 15 percent and 34 percent increase over the past year, respectively. The results are the top performances for the pre-game since 2013-2014 and post-game since 2012-2013.

In addition, the Geno Auriemma Show has set high watermarks through its first nine telecasts in 2016-2017, becoming the most watched season-to-date series in the program’s five year history. The series is averaging a 1.63 household rating in Hartford-New Haven, a 63 percent bump over the 2015-2016 full 11-episode run and 60 percent growth over the series’ five-year average-to-date.

The popularity of UConn women’s basketball wasn’t limited to the primary Connecticut markets, either. Live game viewership on SNY soared in New York, reaching a record=breaking level.  For the season, UConn women’s basketball averaged a 0.42 household rating, shattering the previous high mark set last season. The strong ratings were fueled by a remarkable run from, Feb. 1 through Feb. 25. During this period, representing most of the month of February, UConn women’s basketball delivered its five highest ratings performances of all-time in the New York metro area (which includes Fairfield County Connecticut). The streak culminated during SNY’s final broadcast featuring Memphis-UConn, delivering the network’s best=ever rating in metro-New York with a .77 household rating.