Sisters one step from faceoff in final
With their teams on opposite sides of the bracket, the Final Four has been a fun family reunion for the Samuelson sisters. Karlie, a senior at Stanford, and Katie Lou, a sophomore at Connecticut, have been able to socialize at receptions to welcome players to Texas, and they’ve been free to text and talk as much as possible. It has been a rare chance for their parents, Jon and Karen, and big sister Bonnie, a former Stanford player, to be in the same place.
The stressful part would come Sunday, should all go well for both sisters Friday night.
Should Karlie’s Cardinal team upset No. 1 seed South Carolina and if Katie Lou’s Huskies win their 112th consecutive game in their semifinal against Mississippi State, the Samuelson sisters would have to face each other for the first time in their college careers.
Neither sister is letting herself think too much about that situation yet. Until then, they’ll be each other’s biggest fan.
“If we both win, we’re probably going to focus just on the game. I haven’t thought about it too much,” Karlie said Thursday.
For their teams to get to the final, it likely will require big contributions from both Samuelsons.
Karlie has developed into one of Stanford’s most reliable offensive players, averaging 12.8 points. She’s especially effective on the perimeter, making nine of 16 three-point attempts in the last two games. It’s a credit, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said, to Samuelson’s practice habits, which often include shooting 100 baskets before her teammates make it out to the practice court.
“I am proud of where I’ve come from, but I think my teammates do a really good job of giving me the ball the place I like it most, which is behind the three-point line,” Karlie Samuelson said.
Katie Lou was part of last year’s national championship team at UConn, but this Final Four is her first chance to be a major contributor for the Huskies after serving as a role player on last season’s senior-laden team. Now she’s averaging 20.3 points per game, was selected as a first-team All American and hit 10 of 10 three-point attempts in an American Athletic Conference tournament game against South Florida this month.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who recruited Karlie before she picked Stanford, said recently that he could appreciate what a championship matchup would mean to the family, which hails from Huntington Beach, Calif.
“When Lou came here, it was not an easy thing for the Samuelsons,” Auriemma said during the regional tournament last weekend in Bridgeport, Conn. “You’ve got kids 3,000 miles apart. So trying to figure it all out and then keeping your fingers crossed, well maybe they’ll both play in the Final Four. And now one of them is already there and hopefully we can get there, as well. And the family can go crazy trying to figure out who to root for.”