The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Stats and class
Samuelson makes impact on court and in huddle
Doug Bonjour’s Takeaways
HARTFORD — Well, that didn’t take long.
Katie Lou Samuelson returned to form, bouncing back from her 0-for-5 performance against UCF by hitting eight 3s in No. 3 UConn’s 102-45 rout of Memphis Wednesday at the XL Center.
Samuelson poured in a season-high 32 points on 11-of-19 shooting, to go along with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
The Huskies improved to 24-2, including 12-0 in AAC play.
Here’s five takeaways from the victory:
⏩
Putting in the extra work:
Based on numbers alone, Katie Lou Samuelson is having her most complete season. She’s averaging 19.5 points, along with a career-high 6.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
Her impact on the Huskies, though, can’t be defined solely by statistics.
Just look, for instance, at what Samuelson did dropping 32 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists against Memphis. She left the bench to huddle with her teammates during a timeout.
“(I was) just emphasizing that we didn’t want to give up any open 3s,” Samuelson would later say. “I think that was the big thing at halftime, we were giving them too many open looks.”
Winning players make winning plays, even ones
that don’t appear in the box score.
⏩ Sharing is caring: Crystal Dangerfield is in midst of a potentially record-breaking season. UConn’s smooth, surehanded point guard is averaging 6.0 assists per game after dishing out eight against Memphis.
Interestingly, no Husky has ever averaged that many assists over an entire
season. Jill Brumbaugh (1987-88) and Sue Bird (2001-02) share the record of 5.9 per game.
⏩ Balancing the work: Win No. 113 in American Athletic Conference play was never in doubt. The Huskies led 8-0 after 93 seconds and 36-19 at the end of the first quarter.
With the lead comfortably in hand, coach Geno Auriemma was able to dip into his bench without fear of it backfiring. Olivia Nelson-Ododa (10 points, eight rebounds) and Mikayla
Coombs (four rebounds, four steals) accounted for the bulk of the work from the second unit, logging 21 minutes apiece.
Coombs’ workload was telling, as she came in averaging only 8.3 minutes on the season.
⏩ From deep: Samuelson sank a season-high eight 3-pointers, increasing her career total to 360 — 38 behind Kaleena MosquedaLewis, UConn’s all-time leader.
As a team, the Huskies hit 14 treys, including 11 in the first half. That was just four shy of the program record (set twice).
⏩ Home sweet home: The Huskies’ two seniors, Napheesa Collier and Samuelson, wrapped up their careers 24-0 at the XL Center, including 6-0 this season.
The Huskies will close out their regular-season home schedule March 2 against Houston at Gampel Pavilion.