The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Stewart working to get her rhythm back
HARTFORD — It wasn’t a vintage return, but Breanna Stewart was back on a court. To her, that’s what mattered. “I’m continuing to get back into my rhythm and the timing of things,” Stewart said after the U.S. national team beat UConn 79-64 on Monday in an exhibition game. “Playing a game like this, it takes a second to adjust.”
Playing against her alma mater at the XL Center, Stewart scored three points in 17 minutes. It was her first game back after rupturing her right Achilles’ tendon in April.
“You can tell there’s a gingerness about her,” UConn coach
Geno Auriemma said. “She didn’t have the come out of nowhere and do things that make you go, ‘wow.’ But she’s been looking forward to this for a long time. She got a chance to actually play.”
The death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, 13, made it an emotional return for Stewart. She wrote the names of the nine victims of Sunday’s helicopter crash on her shoe during shootaround.
“It’s just a sad day,” she said. “It’s a sad day for basketball and the fact that his daughter and her teammates and other parents were on board. It’s something that’s really tragic. It makes you cherish the life that you’re living and not think too much into things.”
Stewart sank her first shot, a 3-pointer from the wing, but struggled to get into a flow while on a minutes restriction. She finished 1-of-7 from the floor.
“I’ve never really dealt with that and it made it a little difficult,” she said. “You start in the beginning and it’s great. You warm up, but then that in-between time, how do you stay warm?”
The game was a reunion, of sorts, for Stewart and four of her Team USA teammates: Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Katie Lou Samuelson and Diana Taurasi. The national team will also play at
Louisville on Sunday as they prepare for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Stewart won four straight national championships at UConn and was a three-time Associated Press national player of the year. She ranks second in school history in scoring (2,676), fifth in rebounds (1,179) and first in blocks (414). Stewart, 25, missed the entire 2019 WNBA season after winning both league and finals MVP with the Seattle Storm.
Auriemma was happy to see her back.
“She looked pretty good,” he said. “She’s not the same Stewie yet, but she will be. She got in the lane and made her first (shot). She makes everything look so easy.”
By time the Olympics roll around, she might just be the Stewie of old.
“Physically, she moved well — not tentative,” Team USA coach Cheryl Reeve said. “She played the game well. Obviously, there’s a level of conditioning that you sort of are just trying to survive a little bit, but that was true for a lot of players that didn’t come off of injury. You’re just performing, you’re focused on trying to catch your wind and performing at the same time. … I thought it was a great day for Stewie in terms of making her next step.
“The next time we see her on the practice floor, she’ll grow a little bit, and the next time we play a game we expect her to be even better.”