UConn signee Kia Nurse is one of three finalists for the Golden Horseshoe Athlete of the Year award joining golfer MacKenzie Hughes and football player Mercer Timmins. The award is given to the top athlete from either Hamilton or Burlington, Ontario.

Nurse, a 6-foot guard. had 31 points in the championship game victory over Pope John Paul II to lead her St. Thomas More squad to its third straight OFSAA Class AAAA title.

Nurse also played 23 games with Canada's national team in 2013 and averaged 9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game as Canada posted a 17-6 mark. She averaged 10 points, 2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game as Canada finished second in the FIBA Americas Championship for Women to secure a spot in the FIBA World Championship for Women in late September and early October in Turkey.

Former Notre Dame soccer star Melissa Tancredi, who led Canada to a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics, was last year's winner.

WILLIAMS DELIVERS WITH GENO WATCHING
With the way things worked out, my original itinerary home from Texas had to be altered because a flight delay would have resulted in missing my connecting flight through Charlotte. Plan B wasn't too bad as I was put on a direct flight which got me home about an hour earlier than originally planned. The flight also happened to be the one the UConn team was on. I did not see most of the coaches on the flight and assumed they headed their separate ways for recruiting purposes. I saw a tweet that UConn was at Class of 2015 recruiting target De'Janae Boykins' game last night and Geno Auriemma headed out to Nevada to see UConn signee Gabby Williams play.

Williams did not disappoint as she scored 35 points (shooting 17 of 26 from field) to go with 11 rebounds, 10 assists, six steals and two blocked shots in a 66-24 win over North Valleys and she added . Williams had 19 points in the first quarter and established a new season high for the second time in five days. Williams is averaging 21.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 4.6 steals and 2.1 blocks per game. She was held out of the season opener as she worked her way back from the knee injury she suffered during her junior season. Reed, out of Sparks, Nev., lost that game but is 9-0 with Williams in the lineup.

I thought it was interesting to read in the Reno Gazette-Journal that Williams' father, a highly-respected figure in Nevada AAU circles, recommended to Auriemma that he keep an eye on another Nevada high school star Mallory McGwire, a 6-foot-4 sophomore and niece of former Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire.