The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Samuelson sets record, Huskies win AAC crown
Sophomore 10-for-10 from beyond arc as UConn cruises to another AAC title
UNCASVILLE » It wasn’t quite an incredulous shrug reminiscent of NBA legend Michael Jordan in the 1992 NBA championship series, but more of a bemused look on the face of sweet-shooting Katie Lou Samuelson following the most unscripted shot in the UConn sophomore’s record-setting night.
Saniya Chong’s pass wasn’t even thrown in Samuelson’s direction, but after the ball was deflected, it landed in Samuelson’s hands. Almost with a “why not” feeling, Samuelson let a 3-point shot fly. Like every one of her shots behind the 3-point line on Monday night, it found the bottom of the basket.
It was indeed one of those nights as Samuelson set the NCAA Division I women’s basketball single-game record by making 10 3-pointers without a miss in the Huskies’ 100-44 win over South Florida in the American Athletic Conference championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
“It was just one of those nights where things were kind of working out perfectly and I was getting a lot of good shots and a lot of open shots so I was trying to knock them down when my teammates passed me the ball,” said Samuelson, who was named the tourna-
ment’s most outstanding player.
She certainly knocked down her share, going 12 for 14 from the field and making all six of her free throws as she scored a program postseason record 40 points. Samuelson also joined Nykesha Sales and Maya Moore as the only UConn players to score 40 points.
“I think in the game you don’t really appreciate it because you want to make them miss shots, but sitting here after the game, I am kind of amazed by that,” South Florida guard Maria Jespersen said.
Samuelson also set the AAC tournament scoring record that was set two days earlier by Temple’s Feyonda Fitzgerald and her 17 3-pointers in the tournament are the most by any UConn player in a conference tournament.
The most frightening part of Samuelson’s explosion was that it came exactly a week after teammate and classmate Napheesa Collier lit up USF for 39 points.
“Two weeks in a row,” said Collier who had 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots to join Samuelson and teammate Gabby Williams on the all-tournament team. “I got 39, Lou got 40 tonight and we talked about how cool that was.
“Lou hasn’t been shooting as well as she normally does so to see her come out and explode like this, it was pretty cool.”
Before Collier’s careerhigh scoring night, there were five games with at least 39 points in program history and now there are seven.
“I think that shows something about this team, so many different threats and players who can step up on any given night and be that go-to person,” Samuelson said. “It shows why we had so much success so far and how we can always rely on each other because one of us is going to be able to pick the other up. If somebody is not doing well, we have so many people to go to.”
Williams had 12 points on 6 of 7 shooting to improve her field-goal percentage in nine career AAC tournament games to 80.8 percent. Chong had 11 points, Natalie Butler finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds while Kia Nurse added nine points and six assists for UConn (32-0), winner of an NCAA all-division record 107 games including 82 straight in AAC play.
Samuelson had no idea that she was perfect from 3-point range until associate coach Chris Dailey informed her of that fact following the game. A little bit after that she discovered it was an NCAA record.
Susan Smith of Eastern Washington was 9 for 9 in a 1988 game against Weber State as was Cornell’s Keri Farley against Georgetown in 1993.
Samuelson couldn’t miss in the first half, going 7 for 7 from 3-point range and 9 of 11 from the field en route to 29 points which left her one point short of Tiffany Hayes’ program record for points in a half.
The Huskies will enter the NCAA tournament undefeated for the eighth time. They have won national titles in six of those previous seven campaigns with the lone exception coming in 1996-97.
Dorottya Nagy had 15 points and Kitija Laksa added 12 for South Florida (24-8).
Recruit honored
UConn incoming freshman Megan Walker was named the WBCA national high school player of the year.
Walker, a 6-foot-1 forward at Monacan High in Richmond, Va., is averaging 25.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.1 steals per game as a senior heading into Friday’s Virginia 4A championship game. She has seven 30-point games this season with five double-doubles.