Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Not a bad day for future Huskies

It was championship Sunday for some future UConn players.

Breanna Stewart, a rising high school senior from North Syracuse, N.Y., was named to the all-tournament team after leading the United States to the FIBA Under-19 World Championship title.

While Stewart missed six of her seven shots in the gold medal game 69-46 win over Spain on Sunday, she did have six rebounds, two steals and three blocks. She ended up finishing as the U.S. leader in points (101), rebounds (66) and blocked shots (15) to earn a spot on the all-tournament team along with U.S. teammate and Tennessee incoming freshman Ariel Massengale.

Stewart said she was surprised to make the all-tournament squad.

"I was, actually," Stewart said. "I didn’t think I played that great in my last two games, but I thought I played pretty well in the rest of the tournament."

As for the game against Spain, UConn sophomore Stefanie Dolson and freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had 15 points to share game scoring honors with Duke incoming freshman Elizabeth Williams. Massengale chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds.

"It feels amazing," Dolson said. "Last year (playing for the U.S. U-18 team) was an experience of a lifetime because that was qualifying for here. Then winning the world championship gold medal is so surreal. Getting up there, getting the gold around your neck, it’s a moment you’ll never forget. It feels great."

The depth of the U.S. team was evident as the team's top two scorers in the tournament (Stewart and UConn sophomore Bria Hartley) were a combined 2 of 15 from the floor.

The U.S. team also included UConn commit Morgan Tuck as well as top recruiting target Diamond DeShields. Moriah Jefferson, who joins Stewart and Tuck as members of a star-studded trio of early UConn commits out of the Class of 2012, did not make the cut for the U.S. squad but she also won a title on Sunday.

Jefferson led her DFW Elite T-Jack team to the Nike Nationals gold division title and earned tournament MVP honors. Jefferson broke down after the win as she remembered a promise she and her teammates made after the death of her AAU Marques Jackson due to a heart attack in April of 2010 by winning the Nike Nationals title.

Some former Huskies were on the winning side on Sunday as well as Renee Montgomery had a team-high 19 points including a buzzer-beating 50-foot 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter, Asjha Jones (playing in her 300th WNBA game) had 17 points while Tina Charles had 10 points and 11 rebounds in the Connecticut Sun's 99-92 win over the Atlanta Dream.

Labels: , , , , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home