Samuelson: A Perfect 10
Mohegan — The first 3-pointer UConn's Katie Lou Samuelson made Monday night forced South Florida coach Jose Fernandez to call a 30-second timeout. A minute and a half later, Fernandez called time out again after Samuelson made another shot from 3-point range.
The bottom line: Fernandez didn't have enough timeouts for this particular, one-of-a-kind Samuelson performance.
A 6-foot-3 sophomore guard/forward, Samuelson was 10-for-10 from the 3-point line, setting an NCAA women's basketball single-game record, and finished with 40 points in unbeaten UConn's 100-44 victory over USF in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
She had seven 3-pointers at halftime and, by the time she exited the game for the final time with 2:19 to play in the third quarter, was being serenaded with a chorus of “Looooooooou” each time she touched the ball … or came anywhere near it.
“I think in the game, you don't appreciate it,” South Florida junior Maria Jesperson said of Samuelson's shooting performance. “You want them to miss shots. Sitting here after the game, I'm kind of amazed. I've never seen anything like that before. Respect, I guess.”
“On the bench we were saying, 'There's no way you went 10-for-10,'” UConn teammate Napheesa Collier said. “That's just crazy.”
Samuelson set the AAC tournament record for most points in a single game, most 3-pointers in a game and combined scoring average for the tournament with 23.6 points over the three-games-in-three-days format.
She was 12-for-14 from the floor,
6-for-6 from the free throw line and added five assists, two rebounds and two steals in the final in earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor. She is the third UConn player to eclipse the 40-point mark, joining Nykesha Sales (46) and Maya Moore (41, 40).
Most interesting, perhaps, is the fact Samuelson set out Monday not to think about her shooting so much.
“I think my shooting is affected by the game I play, playing hard on defense, crashing hard,” Samuelson said. “Sometimes I focus on shooting and I don't do as well. I definitely wanted to do other things.”
But once she started hitting every shot?
“I was going to keep shooting until … well, I was going to keep shooting,” Samuelson said with a laugh.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he's spoken with Samuelson about not being identified just as a shooter. The problem with that, he said, is having to live up to those expectations.
On Monday, Auriemma said Samuelson played “a great basketball game,” with two free throws and a steal preceding her first 3-pointer.
“She probably could have gotten 50 tonight at least,” Auriemma said. “By the time the first quarter ended, you knew it was going to be a different kind of night for Lou. It's a thing to watch her. She had a different look about her.”
Samuelson began the AAC tournament by winning the league's regular-season player of the year award, sharing it with Collier, her fellow sophomore.
Earlier this year, from Jan. 14-22, Samuelson tied Moore's UConn record by scoring 94 points in a threegame stretch. Samuelson is a finalist for the Naismith Trophy, awarded to the national player of the year. She's averaging 21 points per game, which currently places her third in UConn history behind Moore (22.8) and Kerry Bascom (22.6) and she has a total of 671 points, which puts her third all-time among UConn sophomores behind Breanna Stewart (777) and Moore (754).
Auriemma said that Samuelson, who scored 2,244 points for Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, Calif., earning national player of the year at that level, as well, still has things to work on.
“She is from California. She's got some issues,” Auriemma said with a laugh. v.fulkerson@theday.com