When Molly Bent looks back on her take on the recruiting process less than 18 months ago all she can do is chuckle at her choice of words.

Bent said she's love to play at national powers UConn or Notre Dame in a January, 2014 story which ran in the Cape Cod Times Bent said "I would never be able to go there."

My how things have changed.

After she caught the attention of the UConn coaching staff playing in the Deep South Classic in Raleigh, N.C. she was invited to a campus visit with the three-time defending national champions. When she left campus on Wednesday she was fairly certain she found her college of choice. Just to be on a safe side she slept on it and on Thursday called UConn coach Geno Auriemma to tell him she was committing.

"It was two years ago when I decided to transfer from Barnstable to Tabor and a large part of that was the basketball aspect to be able to repeat a year and have that competition," Bent said. "I think I have made a lot of strides since then and did everything I could in practice to better my game. I think as the years went on I said I can play at that level."

While she couldn't help but be struck by everything UConn has to offer when she went on a visit, it was the players' personal touch that really won her over.

"I loved the campus," Bent said, "I loved playing pickup with them and how they play, the UConn style, unselfish, team-orientated basketball. After we finished playing pickup, a lot of them came over to talk to my parents and those who weren't doing it picked up a ball and started shooting. I have gone on visits before and sometimes when pickup was over, the players were done but not at Connecticut. I just love to play basketball and I love to be surrounded by those kinds of people."

Bent, a straight-A student, was being heavily recruited by Ivy League schools and some mid-major programs in the Northeast. That all changed when she appeared on UConn's radar in late April.

"I think I was a little surprised because I am kind of under the radar and I didn't know that they would actually come watch," Bent said. "I know my coach tried to contact them before because I was confident in myself and just the way I like to play I think I would fit in with them. I am just so grateful that they stopped and watched, they saw something in me and believed in me."

Bent spent two seasons playing for her father at Barnstable High. She set the school records with 549 points in a season and 42 in a game. Bent scored 1,001 points in two seasons before transferring to Tabor Academy. The 5-foot-9 guard repeated her sophomore season and has been a standout in both soccer and basketball at Tabor.

At Tabor she wasn't asked to shoulder all of the offensive burden. She averaged about 17 points a game in her first season and around 12 points per game last season when she was one of three Tabor players named NEPSAC Class A East All-Stars and was also named to the Massachusetts Prep Star
Athletes Prep/Private School all-star squad.

"The last two years I considered myself a 1/2 kind of combo guard but in this past year especially with my AAU team I have taken on more of a point guard," Bent said. "I love to distribute the ball, I love to pass and find other players especially in the open court because I like to run. I can also play the 2 whatever the team needs me to do."

Bent likely could have chosen to play soccer at the collegiate level but a couple years ago she found herself dealing with too many conflicts between club soccer and AAU basketball.

"It wasn't until last summer when I kind of dropped the club soccer in the spring and fully committed to playing basketball and I am happy that I did," Bent said. "I didn't know whether I wanted to play soccer or basketball in the college but then a couple summers ago I missed a lot of basketball tournaments for soccer tournaments and I thought 'hey, I don't want to do this anymore."

Bent becomes the third player from the Class of 2016 to commit to UConn. Crystal Dangerfield, a member of the U.S. U-17 national team and two-time Gatorade state player of the year from Tennessee, and State College (Pa.) High School forward Kyla Irwin.