UConn Cruises 97-57, Stewart reaches 2,000 Point Club!
Photo: UConn Athletics
In April, The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team won their tenth National Championship and third in a row. No team in sports has been as dominating as the Huskies over the last three years and UConn opened this season in the same fashion. Starting the year, their goal from the first practice has been to win the National Championship, in hopes of becoming the first NCAA Women’s Basketball team to win four straight National Championships. This UConn team is stacked and ready for the challenge! They did lose two seniors to graduation in Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes, but return the AP Player of the Year Breanna Stewart, the top Point Guard in the nation last year, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck. The Huskies also have a great freshmen class led by Katie Lou Samuelson the number one ranked Recruit out of Mater Dei High School in Southern California and whose sisters both play at Stanford University.
UConn took care of business with a 100-56 win over Ohio State in their first game. Kansas State came into the game 3-0 with wins over Tulsa and South Dakota. The home opener was Geno Auriemma’s 30th as the head coach of the UConn Huskies and Breanna Stewart started the game just 16 points away from 2,000 career points.
Game Recap
Breanna Stewart took two 3-pointers in the first two minutes and was fouled on both, scoring 4 points from the line to take a quick lead. Megan Deines hit a big 3-pointer to keep it close at 6-5. A quick outside shot by Stewart and a floater in the lane from Gabby Williams moved the lead to 5 for the Huskies. A second foul from Lewis in the first 3 minutes put her on the bench, opening the door for more down low work for Stewart and Morgan Tuck. UConn at the 1st quarter media break led 16-10. Kansas State led the Big 12 last year in 3-pointers made and hit another one to cut the lead to 18-13, but fouls quickly put Kansas State in trouble with four more points coming from the free throw line giving UConn a 26-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The 2nd quarter started the same way the first ended, Kansas State struggled with turnovers and UConn played great defense forcing the turnovers. UConn fluidly mixed in bench personnel and didn’t slow down. The Cougars kept shooting the three, but were only (5-11 3pt FG) halfway through the 2nd. Great pass distribution led to more scoring from Tuck and Williams extending the lead to 40-21 at the media break in the second quarter. Kansas State’s Center Breanna Lewis struggled to score (1-6 FG) with the smothering defense from the Huskies late in the 2nd quarter. Kansas State seemed to live and die by the three as they shot a deep one with two minutes remaining in the half, then Katie Lou Samuelson faked a three and steps in for the jumper, the first points of her career, with a 15 foot jumper. At the half UConn led 44-27.
Starting the 3rd, Kansas State came out shooting and missing another three, again UConn capitalized with 5 quick points forcing Coach Jeff Mittie to call a quick timeout. Moriah Jefferson’s speed was evident with a rebound and fast break that made her the 4th Husky in double figures and made the lead 56-30 at the 6 minute mark in the third. Stewart with 4:18 in the third quarter hit a 3 pointer to pass the 2,000 point mark in her career becoming the 9th Husky to score 2,000 points. Kansas State missed another 3-pointer and Jefferson hit another jumper from the elbow to make it a 68-38 point lead, forcing another Cougar timeout. At the end of the third quarter, UConn pulled away to a 74-46 lead.
UConn started the 4th quarter with three bench players on the floor and still looked like a solid unit, trading baskets with the Cougars, but Lewis for the Cougars finally got some good looks under the basket and scored back to back buckets. Samuelson hit a big 3-pointer to extend the lead to 33 points with 6 minutes to play. Kansas State continued to force contested shots and deep threes against the aggressive UConn defense and UConn continued to drive to the hoop and chip in from the free throw line down the stretch. UConn finished with great mop up minutes from bench players Napheesa Collier and Saniya Chong claiming the victory over Kansas State, 97-57.
Breanna Stewart led the way with 25 points and made her mark on UConn history going over 2,000 career points, but this was a team effort with four starters scoring in double figures. Kansas State’s offense may shoot a lot of threes, but against a team like UConn, missed threes are missed opportunities and teams have to score as often as possible, because that’s what the Huskies do. UConn took another step towards their goal tonight. They are already the favorite to win it all again and showed why tonight. Next up for UConn, a home game at the Hartford Civic Center against Nebraska, Saturday November 28th, 2015
