Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Thursday, April 03, 2014

UConn's stars save best for brightest lights

Perhaps there might have been those a little surprised at how well Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis has performed in the NCAA tournament.

However, considering her track record in the postseason, it should not have been a shock to anybody that the sweet-shooting junior has hit double digits in all four NCAA tournament games.

Mosqueda-Lewis has played in 15 NCAA tournament games and scored at least 12 points in every one of them. A look through the record books will show that no other UConn player has started their careers by hitting double digits in each of their first 10 games (although Breanna Stewart can accomplish that feat on Sunday against Stanford), never mind going 15 straight games.

"I think what is hard to do when the NCAA tournament comes around is shoot the ball and that is why a lot of the scores in the NCAA tournament, generally speaking, are lower," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "One, the defenses are better or those teams wouldn't get to the NCAA tournament and it is hard to shoot the ball in the NCAA tournament especially when you get to the regionals and the Final Four. The advantage Kaleena has is she is a great shooter and generally speaking guys who are great shooters, they tend not to struggle."

For those trivia buffs out there, the longest streaks of double-digit scoring game in the NCAA tournament predictably belong to Maya Moore (18 in a row) and Diana Taurasi (17 straight).

As for UConn's all-time scoring list in the NCAA tournament, Mosqueda-Lewis and Bria Hartley are climbing up the list.

Hartley currently ranks sixth and Mosqueda-Lewis eighth on the list with 274 and 260 points. Hartley needs 17 points to move by Renee Montgomery and into fifth place while Mosqueda-Lewis needs 12 points to surpass Sue Bird for the No. 7 spot. Moore and Taurasi are at the head of the pack with 476 and 427 points respectively.

"Great players step up and it is the when the most competitive players step up and play their best, especially at UConn," Hartley said. "I have been going out there and making sure I am representing my university really well and make sure I play my best basketball every time.

"That (Mosqueda-Lewis' postseason success) is awesome. just having that aggressive mentality every time when you are out there on the floor."




1 Comments:

Anonymous Joe said...

Another reason it is harder in many cases to score in the Final Four is that the arenas are often bigger and mess up a player's depth perception. Not always, especially in the second half, but in some cases it does affect players early.

10:49 AM 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home