The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
UConn ready for Mississippi State
Nurse hopes to contain Mississippi State’s William in Final Four matchup
DALLAS » The next 3-pointer that UConn junior guard Kia Nurse connects on will set the NCAA Division I women’s record for most treys made in one NCAA tournament. However, it is a different aspect of Nurse’s game that might bring her the most joy.
Raised in an athletic family featuring a father who player in the CFL, an aunt and older sister who played in Division I basketball and a brother who is in the NHL, Nurse has always gotten an extra bounce in her step when the task at hand came with a rugged degree of difficulty.
After drawing defensive matchups on Syracuse’s Alexis Peterson, Jordin Canada of UCLA and Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu in the UConn women’s basketball team’s last three games in the NCAA tournament, another test is coming Nurse’s way in tonight’s national semifinal against Mississippi State (approximately 10 p.m., ESPN2).
All Mississippi State junior guard Morgan William did in the Elite 8 game against Baylor was go off for a career-high 41 points. She also happened to dish out seven assists and didn’t commit a turnover in the overtime victory.
“She does a great job of getting in the lane, finding her teammates, knocking down shots and leading her team,” Nurse said. “I think for us, it is going to be (trying) to limit her touches, limit how much play making she can do and defensively be on the same page.”
Nurse has displayed the talent but even more importantly, the desire to draw the opposing team’s best perimeter player pretty much from the first day she stepped onto the UConn campus.
“I was coached to play both sides of the ball and to understand that everywhere people focus on offense so much that they can be really good offensively players but they might be bad defensive plays so if you can do both sides of the ball it makes you a little bit more valuable,” Nurse said.
“That was how I was kind of taught growing up so I had to be good on both ends.”
Peterson had 25 points, Canada finished with 20 points and 11 assists while Ionescu had 15 points but all three players had to work hard for their shots and to set up their teammates.
“In my position here, I end up with a lot of tough matchups, some of the better guards on the other teams,” Nurse said. “If I can limit touches or kind of slow them down in any way possible, it is a good day.”
Nurse figures to have her work cut out for her. William’s performance against Baylor was one the best statistically in NCAA tournament history. In addition to trying to lead the Bulldogs to their first Final Four, William had a little extra motivation as the game fell one day removed from the three-year anniversary of the death of her stepfather Donnie Rory. The emotion of it all was revealed by William during ESPN’s postgame interview.
“I just played for him and that was all him,” William said. “It just all hit me, I did not plan that. They started asking questions and it just came out.”
Rory, who was 44 when he succumbed to a heart attack in 2014, was a highlyrespected coach. The day of his death is always a difficult one for William, one of reflection and always one where she takes the time to remember the impact Rory had in her life.
“It was a special moment,” said Mississippi State junior guard Blair Schaefer, who is William’s roommate. “I told her she needed to cherish that moment because he is in heaven looking down on her and proud of her. He used to work her out and be her coach and trainer. He is the reason why she is where she is today so just keep your head up. I know you wish he was here to see you play but he is watching you from heaven and he is so proud of you.”
William admitted that she contemplated quitting basketball after Rory’s sudden death. As she stood in the Bulldogs’ locker room, she knows she made the right decision to stick with the game that she learned to play thanks to Rory’s expert tutelage.
“If I didn’t have him in my life, I don’t know if I would have been this successful or I would still be playing basketball,” William said. “I remember when he passed, I wanted to quit, I didn’t have the motivation but my mom and my high school coach said he would have wanted you to play so keep playing.
“I am not a quitter but during the tough times, I couldn’t go in the gym for a month. I’d go in the gym, try to dribble and I couldn’t do it, I just started crying.”
William not only didn’t have a 40-point game this season before the Baylor game, she never posted more than 37 points in back to back games.
“She had this look in her eyes like nobody was going to stop her,” Schaefer said. “She was hot, we were running plays (normally reserved) for our shooting guards because she was making everything. We told her, ‘they are not adjusting and not guarding it so we are going to keep running it.’ I just feel like she was truly a great point guard that day, she was not going to let her team lose and she had that mindset. I feel like when she has that mindset and she has attitude, we have a full team with that attitude behind her.”