Diana Taurasi, a member of three national championship teams at UConn, became the WNBA's all-time leader in 3-pointers made during the regular season in the first quarter of tonight's Phoenix/Chicago game.

Taurasi came into the game tied with Katie Smith for the record with 906 3-pointers. She missed her first attempt but connected on her record 907th 3-pointer.

Taurasi is playing in her 372nd career game while Smith had 906 3-pointers in 482 regular-season games. However, Smith needed fewer attempts (2466) than Taurasi (2480) to reach 906. Taurasi is also the WNBA all-time leader with 128 career 3-pointers in the playoffs.

Taurasi hit eight 3-pointers en route to scoring 37 points in the 99-91 win while Stefanie Dolson had six 3-pointers for Chicago.

The news wasn't as good for another former UConn star.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis suffered a knee injury for Seattle in a May 26 game. She has undergone a scope on her right knee. It's uncertain how long she will be out of action.

Mosqueda-Lewis has played in four games but was only on the court for one minute before being injured against New York. In her first three games she played between 12-15 minutes as she was 7 of 10 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range and made all eight of her free-throw attempts.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was recently going through some photos on her phone and one of them really caught her eye.

Mosqueda-Lewis saw a baby-faced Breanna Stewart in a picture with her and she immediately flashed back to that summer seven years ago when they were teammates for the first time as members of the gold-medal winning U.S. U-16 national team.

"I have been reflecting on the fact that we have been playing together since we were 15 years old," Mosqueda-Lewis said before Friday night's Seattle Storm/Connecticut Sun game at Mohegan Sun Arena. "It is crazy that now we are 21, 22 years old that we are still on the same team. Just today I put up a picture from us on the U16 team together, it is pretty crazy that after all of these years we are still playing together."

Mosqueda-Lewis was the leading scorer while Stewart, the youngest player on the squad, was tied for the team lead in blocked shots.

They played together for three years at UConn and were parts of three national championship teams and now they are in their first season together in the WNBA.

Stewart is second on the Storm in rebounds, steals and blocked shots while her 15.7 scoring average is second only to Jewell Loyd, who also took part in the training camp and trials with the U-16 team back in 2009.

Mosqueda-Lewis expected Stewart to make an immediate impact in the WNBA.

"I think it was quite easy for her," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "She has played with a lot of the people that are in the league right now because she is on the national team and has done a great job of doing the things consistently that she knows she can."

Mosqueda-Lewis is averaging 3.6 points per game and the NCAA Division I career leading in 3-pointers made is shooting only 18.2 percent from 3-point range so she is still working to make an impact. The good news is she experienced success as a pro while playing for Charleville-Mezieres in France.

Mosqueda-Lewis was the team's leading scorer at 12.7 points per game and shot 42 percent from 3-point range. More importantly, she helped her team improve from 10-16 in the 2014-15 season to posting a 19-10 mark.

"I spent the year overseas, I was able to gain some confidence and play a lot over there against players who have been playing for a while now really was good for me," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I don't think there is a better teacher than experience."

One drawback is she didn't get to see UConn's march to a fourth straight national title although she was hardly surprised to see her former teammates cutting down the nets once again.

"I didn't expect anything less from them, they really didn't lose much when me and Kiah (Stokes) graduated and they got in some good freshman," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "It was kind of expected from me that they won another one.

"I probably watched one game I was asleep half the time. I tried to keep up looking at the scores, looking at the highlights that they had or sometimes my parents recorded them and I watched them afterwards. It is different watching from the other side but when they win another one, you feel just a part of it as when you were there."

There was a fairly good chance that Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes would be teaming up with at least one former UConn stars considering the large number of former Huskies playing in the WNBA.

Now that the dust has cleared, the two soon to be graduated seniors might have found the perfect mentors to aid their transition from college to professional basketball.

Mosqueda-Lewis, the NCAA Division I women's basketball all-time leading 3-point shooter, will get to play alongside of future Hall of Fame point guard Sue Bird in Seattle while shot-blocking dynamo Kiah Stokes will be teamed up in New York with Tina Charles, the all-time leading rebounder in UConn history.

"I am excited to learn from one of the best point guards to ever play," Mosqueda-Lewis said shortly after going No. 3 overall.

Sue Bird has been to some practices during Mosqueda-Lewis' four seasons and she was the color commentator on the ESPN2 broadcast when UConn hosted South Florida so there is already some familiarity between the two.

When she was in Storrs she spoke to a couple of us and of course the possibility of Mosqueda-Lewis joining the Storm was a popular topic of conversation as a potential No. 1 overall pick. As it turned out, early entrants Jewell Loyd and Amanda Zahui B. went No. 1 and 2 with Loyd set to join Mosqueda-Lewis in Seattle.

"When Seattle got the No. 1 pick, shortly thereafter Kaleena played in that Stanford game and a lot of people had a lot of opinions based on that one game and truthfully I didn't think that was fair," Bird said. "I get it, people say big players play well in big games and I get it but one game doesn't define you. With that being said, it is no secret that this draft isn't as strong as previous ones so it tough for a kid like Kaleena who in my opinion is the best player in the class and she is going to get compared to other No. 1 picks where maybe she isn't as talented as those players but that is just the way it is. I think people will try to compare her to past guards who have been picked high and she is going to be compared to them. Is that fair? No.  You put her in last year's draft, she goes five or six and that team is thrilled to have her. If she does go to Seattle and that is who they decide to pick, we will just as thrilled as any other team to have her and she can complement a team, bring things to a team that you probably haven't even seen here in Connecticut because she hasn't had to do it. For her that will be a challenge."

Mosqueda-Lewis' 3-point prowess has been her "get out of jail free card" when she struggled in other areas of her game according to UConn coach Geno Auriemma. While Mosqueda-Lewis is a proven offensive commodity who will need to prove herself on defense, the opposite is true for Stokes.

Stokes set UConn's single-season record with 147 blocked shots and it's hard to forget her 18-rebound performance at Notre Dame. She has not always been a player looking for her own offense. Playing alongside Charles, one of the most talented offensive post players in the world, is something that could help in her development.

"I met her on my (recruiting) visits," Stokes said of Charles. "I don't talk to her that much so I am excited to get to learn from her and get better. She is a great player and I want to follow in her footsteps."

Fresh off leading the UConn women's basketball team to its third straight national title and becoming the first women's player to be named Most Outstanding Player at the Division I Final Four three times, Breanna Stewart added the Wooden Award to her growing list of national player of the year awards.

Stewart, who averaged a team-high 17.6 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, becomes the third UConn player to win the Wooden Award as Maya Moore was the 2009 and 2011 winner and Tina Charles was the 2010 honoree. Stewart is in pretty select company as Moore is the only other UConn player to win the Wooden Award, Wade Trophy, Associated Press Player of the Year and Naismith Trophy in the same season.

Stewart now has two of the top seven single-season scoring totals. She also joins Charles, Moore and Rebecca Lobo are the only Huskies with two 300-rebound seasons while Stewart and Lobo are the only players in program history with two seasons with at least 100 blocked shots.

Stewart received the award at a ceremony in Los Angeles joined by teammate Kaleena MosquedaLewis, one of five finalists for the women's Wooden Award.

For those people going to the UConn spring game tomorrow, the women's team will be at Rentschler Field from 2-2:45 p.m. signing autographs. I'm not sure if Mosqueda-Lewis and Stewart will be back in time since they are in Los Angeles for the Wooden Award announcement.

UConn's Moriah Jefferson, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Breanna Stewart were named to the WBCA Region 1 team making their eligible for the WBCA All-American team.

Stewart leads UConn in scoring with an average of 17.1 points per game, is also the Huskies' top rebounder (7.1 per game) and second in assists, steals and blocked shots.

Mosqueda-Lewis, who averages 15 points per game, is the first player in program history to make more than 100 3-pointers in two different seasons.

Jefferson leads the team with 169 assists and 89 steals while contributing 12 points per game.

Former Hillhouse star Bria Holmes, a junior guard at West Virginia, is a member of the Region 5 team.

Also, UConn's Geno Auriemma was named the WBCA's Region 1 Coach of the Year making him eligible to be named the WBCA National Coach of the Year for a sixth time.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Moriah Jefferson combined for 42 points
as UConn pulled away for 91-55 victory over Rutgers on Monday night

Often times it looks all so routine.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis starts hitting 3-pointers from seemingly everywhere, Morgan Tuck and Breanna Stewart take turns setting up the other for layups while Moriah Jefferson and Kia Nurse attack the basket with controlled abandon.

However, Stewart was on the bench with two fouls, neither Mosqueda-Lewis nor Nurse were involved in the offense as the Huskies found themselves with few answers and a precarious five-point lead as the NCAA second-round game approached the midway point of the first half.

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer is a Hall of Famer in large part due to being one of the top defensive minds in the history of women's college basketball and she was not about to make things easy for the Huskies.

For one of the few times this season, the Huskies seemed to be a bit rattled. Ill advised passes resulted in turnovers, poor shot selection contributed to some empty possessions. There wasn't much help coming from the bench either so for stretches it basically was Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck playing 2 on 5 on the offensive end of the court.

What followed next was seeing players contribute in different ways.

It started with freshman Gabby Williams, a 44 percent free-throw shooter, going 3 of 4 from the foul line. Then Mosqueda-Lewis, who had fallen into her old habit of standing in one spot waiting to fire up a 3-pointer, began to move with purpose. She hit a jumper in the lane, added a rebound, assist and steal before capping an 11-0 run with a 3-pointer. Kiah Stokes ripped down offensive rebounds with authority and before long, the Huskies were well on their way to another convincing win.

"You never know when somebody is going to go down, either get hurt or get into foul trouble so you have to be ready to step up at any time," said UConn junior guard Moriah Jefferson, who had 19 points including the 1,000th of her career. "We needed (somebody) whether it was me or K (Mosqueda-Lewis) to step up and make the shots to get us into a rhythm and onto a
roll.
"I think games like this are really fun. When Stewie went out, I think a lot of people stepped up and that isn't even saying anything about Gabby, she was killing it. I am just excited for my team."
Williams had 11 points and 10 rebounds as she became the ninth UConn freshman to score in double figures in both the first and second round games. Stokes contributed more to the winning effort than her final line of four points, eight rebounds and two blocks would seem to indicate. Saniya Chong's stat line of two points, four rebounds and one turnover is not an indication of the impact she had. There was one flurry when Chong made the perfect defensive read to prevent a transition layup by Rutgers. Then UConn came down the court and Chong alertly vacated the area near Mosqueda-Lewis leading to one of her five 3-pointers.

"You have to be ready when you name is called," Stokes said. "You don't know when people are going to get into foul trouble like Stewie did. It is not a thing of hang your head because you're not starting or you are not the first one off the bench. When your name is called you have to be ready. I have taken that to heart. I have come in during certain games throughout my whole career and given the spark we needed. I know when my name is called I need to come in, block shots and
get rebounds. As long as I am doing that, I know I am doing my role."

Neither Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis or Kiah Stokes know what the future has in store for them but one thing they are certain of is that they won't play at Gampel Pavilion again after tonight's NCAA second-round game against Rutgers comes to an end.

I've always found the whole concept of the emotional Senior Day/Night festivities to be rather interesting because invariably there are still conference and NCAA tournament games to be played in Connecticut after they play their final regular-season game at Gampel. However, both Mosqueda-Lewis and Stokes admitted that going through the Senior Day festivities helped them deal with all of the emotions so they can focus fully on the survive and advance side of things once the NCAA tournament comes around.

"I am just thinking about the tournament and I am not thinking about it being my last game (in Connecticut)," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I kind of got that out of my system after Senior Night.

"I think it does help you get it out of the way and lets you focus on what is really important."

Stokes had a similar take on things as she prepares to step onto Gampel Pavilion for the last time as a Husky.
"It is one of our last games," Stokes said. "It is not a sad time because you still have hopefully we have five more games left so we have to keep on pushing until then. It is not over until we play our last game and we are just trying to make sure that isn't our game (today) or the weekend after that.

"It will definitely be weird because I will be practicing on it for four years and now tomorrow is going to be our game at Gampel. It is definitely emotional but right now I am trying not to think about it like that. I am just trying to make sure it is a great game tomorrow."

Both players have a chance at some milestones tonight.

Stokes has a UConn single-season record 138 blocks and she is two away from becoming the 16th Division I women's player with 140 blocked shots in a season.

Mosqueda-Lewis is currently eighth on the NCAA Division I women's career list with 381 3-pointers. Next up will be former Louisville star Shoni Schimmel and former James Madison standout Dawn Evans, who are tied for sixth with 387 3s. She needs five points to become the 18th player with at least 300 career points in the NCAA Division I tournament and is currently tied for ninth on the career 3-point list in the NCAA tournament. She has 35, one behind Maryland grad Kristi Toliver and two behind former Huskies Bria Hartley and Renee Montgomery.

Last but certainly not least, today is the last day to vote for Stokes in the balloting for the Senior CLASS Award. Stokes leads the voting at 29.4 percent followed by Tennessee's Isabelle Harrison (17.4) and Iowa's Samantha Logic (13.6). The voting is just one of the criteria for selecting the Senior CLASS Award winner which goes to the player who is successful on the court, in the classroom and also is a positive contributor to the community.

Watching Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis misfire on a couple of open 3-pointers and miss a couple of shots in the lane, it was pretty clear that something was a little amiss with the senior forward.

The UConn coaching staff felt the same way because she played just 16 minutes in last night's win over St. Francis (N.Y.), her lowest total for an NCAA tournament game. Mosqueda-Lewis' streak of consecutive NCAA tournament games scoring in double digits ended at 17 as she had just two points in the 89-33 win.

Mosqueda-Lewis was back on the practice court today and downplayed any health issues.

"My tape job was too tight on my Achilles," Mosqueda-Lewis said before UConn hit the practice court. "I just got taped for the first time in a long time, it probably wasn't the best thing.

"It was more so my tape that was hurting me and making my Achilles hurt than anything. It felt like someone was slowly snipping at my Achilles. I had new shoes and didn't feel like my ankles were supported so I wanted to get them taped so it ended hurting me."

Mosqueda-Lewis, fifth all-time at UConn in postseason scoring, is not accustomed to sitting for more minutes than she plays during March Madness.

"It was weird but my team ended up taking care of me so I didn't have anything to worry about," Mosqueda-Lewis said.

Here are some statistical items of note

Morgan Tuck had 26 points and eight assists as Sue Bird is the only other UConn player with at least 25 points and eight assists in the same NCAA tournament game as Bird had 26 and 11 in a 2002 game against Old Dominion.

Gabby Williams had 15 points and Kia Nurse added 12 as they became the fifth set of UConn freshmen to reach double digits in the NCAA opener.

Back in 1993 Jamelle Elliott had 21 points and Rizzotti added 13, in 2001 Diana Taurasi (12 points) and Morgan Valley (11) accomplished the feat, four years later Mel Thomas had 13 points and Charde Houston added 10 and most recently Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley had 12 points each in the 2011 NCAA opener.

With some free time on my hands this week I was able to complete my research on the most prolific postseason scorers in UConn women's basketball history.

It shouldn't surprise too many people to see Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi ranking No. 1 and 2 on the list. However. current senior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis is currently fifth on that list and barring could very well move by Tina Charles and into fourth on that list during the next few days.

"It is my favorite time of the year," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "It is the time you wait for and once you start your basketball career in college, what you dream about it is March Madness and being a part of it. It is what I get the most excited for."

Here is the list with the conference tournament point total listed first followed by NCAA point production

PLAYER        CONF. NCAA TOTAL
Maya Moore        181-476 657
Diana Taurasi      169-428 597
Kara Wolters       242-322 568
Tina Charles        192-310 502
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis 
                            180-293 473Renee Montgomery
                            138-296 435
Bria Hartley        131-300 431
Stefanie Dolson  189-219 408
Barbara Turner   132-274 406
Asjha Jones        134-242 376
Breanna Stewart 164-212 376
Rebecca Lobo     155-190 345
Swin Cash          125-218 338
Nykesha Sales    112-222 334
Carla Berube      143-190 333
Tamika Williams  126-201 327
Tiffany Hayes      90-228 318
Ann Strother      121-195 316
Kerry Bascom   200-110 310


Also, Mosqueda-Lewis is tied for ninth in NCAA tournament history with 35 3-pointers in NCAA tournament play and is 19th in career NCAA tournament scoring.

POINTS
479—Chamique Holdsclaw, Tennessee, 1996-99 (22
games)
476—Maya Moore, Connecticut, 2008-11 (22)
444—Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Stanford, 2009-11 (21)
428—Diana Taurasi, Connecticut, 2001-04 (23)
403—Brittney Griner, Baylor, 2010-13 (18)
388—Bridgette Gordon, Tennessee, 1986-89 (18)
372—Seimone Augustus, LSU, 2003-06 (19)
367—Candice Wiggins, Stanford, 2005-08 (16)
352—Alana Beard, Duke, 2001-04 (17)
348—Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame, 2010-13, (20)
333—Cheryl Miller, Southern California, 1983-86 (16)
332—Candace Parker, Tennessee, 2006-08 (16)
324—Jayne Appel, Stanford, 2007-10 (19)
322-Kara Wolters, Connecticut, 1993-97 (19)
312—Janice Lawrence, Louisiana Tech, 1982-84 (14)
310—Tina Charles, Connecticut, 2007-10 (21)
300—Bria Hartley, Connecticut, 2011-14 (22)
296-Renee Montgomery, Connecticut 2006-09 (19)
293—Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut, 2012-14 (17)291—Penny Toler, San Diego St./Long Beach St., 1985,
87-89 (13)

Most Three-Point Field Goals
61—Diana Taurasi, Connecticut, 2001-04 (23 games)
59—Maya Moore, Connecticut, 2008-11 (22)
42—Shanna Zolman, Tennessee, 2003-06 (21)
42—Candice Wiggins, Stanford, 2005-08 (16)
39—Sue Bird, Connecticut, 2000-02 (17)
37—Renee Montgomery, Connecticut, 2006-09 (19)
37—Bria Hartley, Connecticut, 2011-14 (22)
36—Kristi Toliver, Maryland, 2006-09 (16)
35—Jeanette Pohlen, Stanford, 2008-11 (22)
35—Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut, 2012-14 (17)

Geno Auriemma has a knack for knowing when the push his team to the limit and when to back off a little bit.

With the way the Huskies barely had to break a sweat during games, especially in the American Athletic Conference portion of their schedule, he really turned up the pressure in practice. However, realizing that it is a long journey from the first official practice in mid October to the national championship game next month, Auriemma gave the Huskies three basketball-free days after the conclusion of the AAC tournament.

"It was good for our team, especially playing three games in three days in a row is kind of tough on your body at this point in the season," UConn senior forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis said. "We definitely needed a break mentally and physically."

UConn won't play on back to back days for the rest of the season. The first and second round games will be played on Saturday and Monday and the Albany Regional is also on a Saturday/Monday schedule with the Final Four  featuring Sunday semifinals and a Tuesday championship game.
"Three days off and then we got back into the gym," UConn junior guard Moriah Jefferson said. "It lets your body recover. You play three games in a row, you start trying to get fast break points and your legs start to feel the after affects of that.

"I think for the most part practices have been really good, we have done a lot better within these couple of practices. We know we are far from perfect. We have to go back and look at that, see the things we were doing wrong and fix them."

Perhaps no player needed a couple of days off more than freshman guard Kia Nurse.

She had multiple training camps with the Canadian national team heading into the FIBA World Championship for Women where Nurse was a starting guard during Canada's surprising run to a fifth place finish. When she got back to campus, she had plenty of catching up to do especially academically. Then it was straight into the grind of a long season.

Nurse played a season low 14 minutes in the AAC title game and it was the only time this season that she failed to score. Perhaps three days away followed by scaled back practices will be just what Nurse needs to return to playing like she did when she was inserted into the starting lineup before the third game of the season.

"A couple days off here and there, unwinding, kind of getting back into the (cycle) of rejuvenation and it just makes practice better and we are ready to go," Nurse said. "We are just focusing on what we are good at right now, perfecting that and making sure that is going really well."

NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR UCONN

At this time of the year the amount of national attention the UConn basketball programs get tends to increase.

Right on cue, Sports Illustrated did a 48-photo slideshow featuring a familiar face at Gampel Pavilion. However, it wasn't a member of either the men's or women's basketball team but cheerleader Kristi Pratt who was honored as SI's Cheerleader of the Week.

While the American Athletic Conference is not releasing its major individual awards until tomorrow, that doesn't mean that UConn players had to wait until tomorrow's press conference to be recognized.

Junior guard Moriah Jefferson was named the AAC's Most Improved Player and was joined on the first team All-AAC by teammates Breanna Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Morgan Tuck. senior center Kiah Stokes was named the conference's defensive player of the year after blocking a conference-leading 86 shots which is more than eight of the other AAC teams had during the season.
Freshman forward Gabby Williams was one of two winners of the Sixth Player of the Year Award after leading the conference with a 61.8 field-goal percentage, finishing tied for sixth with an average of 7.5 rebounds per game and averaging 10.1 points per game during conference play. Williams was also named to the All-Freshman team. Tulsa junior guard Ashley Clark, who averaged 13.9 points and 7.3 rebounds in AAC play, shared the honor with Williams.
Temple senior guard Tyonna Williams was named the AAC's Sportsmanship Award winner while East Carolina's I'Tiana Taylor was selected as the Newcomer of the Year.
Jefferson led the conference with an average of 3 steals per game and was the conference lead with a 54.3 3-point percentage and a 3.6 assist/turnover ratio was one of four unanimous first-team All-AAC selections.
Stewart (17.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots per game), Mosqueda-Lewis (14.2 points per game and a conference best 54 3-pointers) and South Florida's Courtney Williams, who led the conference with an average of 21.4 points per game, were also unanimous selections. Tuck and East Carolina's Jada Payne were also named to the first team.
Stokes was a second-team pick while UConn's Kia Nurse was a third-team All-AAC selection and joined Temple's Alliya Butts as the only unanimous selections to the All-Freshman team.
The conference's player of the year, coach of the year, freshman of the year and scholar-athlete of the year will be announced during a press conference at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday at 2 p.m.

It just worked out that the best day to get the 1989-90 UConn team back to Gampel Pavilion was also the day when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis became the 16th women's player inducted into the Huskies of Honor.

The timing was ideal as UConn coach Geno Auriemma was asked after yesterday's Senior Day win over Memphis who would win a game of H-O-R-S-E and how Mosqueda-Lewis who fare in a shooting contest against some of the great shooters on past UConn teams. The first name he mentioned just happened to be the star of that 1989-90 team, the first one to play at Gampel.

"It was just for fun, I could flip a coin," Auriemma said. "If there was a ton of money on the table my guess is on a couple of guys. I think what K (Mosqueda-Lewis) does is really hard to do. She has perfected something and the ball comes out of her hand 99.999 percent of the time exactly the same way. Very few kids can do that.  She is a great shooter because the ball comes out the same way every time. The next thing that great shooters have  is they have to have a mindset of every time the ball leaves my hand it is going in. If they miss three in a row they know they are going to make the next 10 and that is how they act. She has gotten to that point.

"I am one of the most fortunate people in the world because I have a bunch of those guys in 30 years, one of them is here today Kerry Bascom. There is a segment of the world that if there is one kid taking one shot, that is the kid I want shooting. She is from New Hampshire, she don't know diddly about anything. She never read newspapers about how good she was, there was no social media. She didn't have to worry about if I miss what's going to happen. She didn't care and that is the best attitude for most shooters to have. Then you have D (Diana Taurasi) she might not take any shots until the one she has to make and Sue (Bird) might be better than all of them with the game on the line and I haven't even gotten to Maya (Moore) yet. As you go through all of those guys, how can one program get that many. We have fortunate. This kid we have right now, it is the most beautiful (shot). Every time it leaves her hand, it if doesn't go in 'what happened, somebody check the rim.'"

When you look at the list of WNBA career leaders, four of the top 20 in career points played at UConn and three of the top 20 in total 3-pointers are former Huskies so being considered as perhaps the best shooter in UConn history is quite the honor.

Mosqueda-Lewis moved into 11th on the NCAA Division I 3-point career list as the five she made put her at 367. Mosqueda-Lewis is nine behind the No. 10 player on the list (Oklahoma's Aaryn Ellenberg).

Here is the breakdown

PLAYER, SCHOOL           YEARS           G    3-PT PTS  REB AST STL BLK (TO)
1 Laurie Koehn, Kansas St. 2002-05          121 392  1733 362  218  112   10 (238)
1 Heather Butler, UT Martin 2011-14        129 392  2865 476 467  168   12 (287)
3 Erin Thorn, BYU 2000-03                       127 391  2061 214 505  236   47 (318)
3 Shrieka Evans, Grambling 2000-03         117 391
5 Jaleesa Ross, Fresno St      2008-11         134 389  2143  660 365 247 44 (230)
6 Dawn Evans, J. Madison   2008-11         125 387  2667  353 564 168 33 (515)
6 Shoni Schimmel, Louisville 2011-14      142 387 2174 552 600 262 40 (485)
8 Kim MacMillan, LIU/St. John's
                                          2000-02, 04       117 379  1963 498 209 183  6
9 Chynna Bozeman, Morehead St 2008-11 125 377 2130 577 394 251 38 (401)
10 Aaryn Ellenberg, Oklahoma 2011-14    134 376  2328 472 245 202 18 (347)
11. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis                     132 367  2017 716 304 156 20 (192)

The CBS Sports Network coverage of tomorrow's regular season home finale against Memphis not starting until tip off because the broadcast of the men's game between Lehigh and Colgate runs right up to the 2 o'clock hour. As a result, they will not be televising the pre-game ceremony when seniors Kiah Stokes and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis will be honored and Mosqueda-Lewis' No. 23 gets inducted into the Huskies of Honor.

UConn announced that it will be offering a free live stream of the ceremony at this link http://www.uconnhuskies.com/collegesportslive/?media=489858 The event is set to start at 1:40 p.m.

\Also, thanks to my trusty iPhone, I will have videos up on my Tout account (available via my Twitter account @NHRJimFuller) as quickly as the internet inside Gampel Pavilion allows that to take place.

NO GOLDEN HORSHOE AWARD FOR KIA NURSE
Freshman guard Kia Nurse was nominated for Golden Horseshoe Award, presented annually since 1995 to the best athlete in the Burlington/Hamilton, Ontario area, for the second year in a row. However, Nurse's bid to become the first basketball player to win the honor since 2006 will have to wait.

Last year it was golfer Mackenzie Hughes who won the award while last night it was announced that the 2014 winner is Laura Fortino, who assisted on the game-winning overtime goal in the gold medal game of the Olympics as Canada defeated the United States to win a fourth straight title.

SEASON OVER FOR UCONN COMMIT
UConn Class of 2016 commit Kyla Irwin's quest for a state title during her junior season came screeching to a half when Altoona's Ali Treglia scored with 3.6 seconds remaining to lift Altoona to a 46-45 win over Irwin's State College team in the Pennsylvania District 6-AAAA title game.

Irwin had 17 points in the game as she scored in double figures in 22 of the 23 games as a junior as she averaged 20 points per game.

Altoona advances to play in the PIAA playoffs.

It's seen some impressive stuff from the UConn women's basketball team but can't recall too many 10-plus minute stretches as overwhelming as the one the Huskies had in today's win over Tulsa.

It was a 28-21 game when Tulsa's Kelsee Grovey hit a 3-pointer with 8:54 left in the first half.

The Huskies then hit the next four shots, had another run of six in a row. When Grovey hit another jumper with 17:44 left in the game, it ended a 34-2 UConn run.

"Our defensive pressure isn't very good," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "I think I do it because they don't like to do it but the kind of pressure we put on people by how quickly we score, that is a difficult kind of pressure to deal with."

UConn was 14 of 20 from the field with seven steals, three blocks and three turnovers while Tulsa was 1 of 9 with eight turnovers. Most of the offensive damage was done by Breanna Stewart (13 points of her season high 28 points to go with four rebounds, a steal and two blocks during the run) and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (eight of her 17 points during that stretch)/

"When just one of those guys is going it is a difficult thing but when both of them are going, it is fun to watch," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "Those two are pretty special, you are talking about two of the best players in the country. It is very difficult for a team to defend that."

An undersized Tulsa team often times tried to defend Stewart with a player standing less than 6 feet tall so UConn got Stewart the ball in the lane early and often. It was a little surprising how much room they gave Mosqueda-Lewis to shoot and most of her five 3-pointers were pretty wide open.

"Kaleena and myself, whether we are playing a two-man game or she is knocking down shots, when we get into a rhythm, it rubs off on your teammates and more people get more confident."

Mosqueda-Lewis' five 3-pointers moved her into a tie for 13th on the NCAA Division I career list. Her 357 3s ties her with former Penn State star Kelly Mazzante. She is also 25 points shy of 2,000. After the game she reflected on what it's like playing alongside Stewart when they both have it going on.
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"With the confidence we have in each other, if one person or both of us are hot, we can do a pick and roll, we can play inside/outside," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I think we do a good job of feeding off of each other when both of us are doing really well."

UCONN COMMITS ADD TITLES TO GROWING COLLECTION
Eventually Crystal Dangerfield and Andra Espinoza-Hunter will be joining forces at UConn. In the meantime, they will continue to add to their collection of championships.

Dangerfield had 21 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals as Blackman High defeated Oakland 55-47 to win the Tennessee District 7-AAA title for the second year in a row. Dangerfield was named the 7-AAA regular season and tournament MVP. Next up is the region quarterfinal against Lincoln County on Monday.

Espinoza-Hunter had 19 points as Blair Academy won its fifth straight New Jersey Prep School Class A title with a 72-53 win over Peddie. Bre Cavanaugh, who has signed with California, led Blair with 29 points.

Blair Academy won the Mid-Atlantic Prep League title last week beating that same Peddie school.

Geno Auriemma went on the record earlier this season as saying he didn't think this was a particularly good passing team. Actually, I think something close to horrible or terrible would better bit his thoughts on the matter.

Apparently his latest UConn team's ability to pass is improving in the eyes of the demanding head coach.

"I think we have become a better passing team each year as the season goes on as we become a little bit more familiar and certainly spend a lot of time on it in practice. That is kind of one of the trademarks of our program and it has been for a long time sometimes to our detriment that we don't shoot enough. I think players by virtue of being in our program over a period of time do become better passers."

The last time out against Houston nine different UConn players had at least two assists. I did some checking and the last time that happened at UConn game in an NCAA tournament game against Dartmouth on Mar. 20, 2005.

It's sort of an interesting statistic but looking back, the games with the most players with multiple assists came when the Huskies emptied their bench due to the lopsided score but both back in 2005 and today, getting nine players with multiple assists signifies some good passing post players.

"The worst kind of team that you can't have is post players who can't pass," Auriemma said. "To me if you have a bunch of big guys and they can't help the offense that is where all offenses go to die. The guards do a great job of getting the ball up the floor, they get it to a post player, they are not open, they can't shoot it and they catch it and it is dead. We have had post players who can pass the ball going all the way back to Kerry Bascom, Meghan Pattyson, Kara (Wolters), Rebecca (Lobo), we generally have big guys who can make a play, that is as much of a reason why our offense is at good as it is."

That is certainly the case this season as the starting frontcourt of Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis are all on pace to finish with more than 100 assists this season. Even more impressive is that the trio has a 1.7 assist/turnover ratio. There are teams with guards who don't have that ratio. As a team, UConn is on pace to finish with the third most assists in team history trailing only last year's squad and the 2001-02 team. Both of that teams happened to finish as undefeated national championship squads.

"It is really great for us, it shows how unselfish our team is and how much we can rely on other people that when I give them (the ball) they are going to do something good, they are going to knock the shot down," Mosqueda-Lewis said.

MEMPHIS GAME SOLD OUT
UConn announced that the Feb. 28 game against Memphis is officially considered to be a sellout. It will be the final regular season home game. Seniors Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes will be recognized before their game as they play at Gampel for the final time in the regular season (although UConn is hoping the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament).

HUGE GAME FOR UCONN RECRUITNG TARGET
Flower Mound (Tex.) forward Lauren Cox is considered by most to be the best player in the current high school junior class. She certainly played liked it last night. Cox had 26 points, 19 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in a state playoff win against Carroll.

It was the third triple-double of the season for Cox and the other two game against Plano, the team Flower Mound will  on Tuesday in the next round of the state playoffs.

Cox, a 6-foot-4 forward, is averaging 21 points, 15.3 rebounds and 5.4 blocked shots per game this season.

Morgan Tuck will get to experience one Senior Day festivity up close and personal when teammates Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes make that emotional walk out to midcourt to greet UConn coach Geno Auriemma before the Feb. 28 game against Memphis.

However, it is easy to excuse Tuck is some of her thoughts are with another player set to be honored before her final regular-season home game on that day.

Tuck's older sister Taylor has always been something of a role model. She was the person who helped Morgan when she started to get serious about basketball which happened well before she was being sought after by some of the nation's premier programs.

Taylor Tuck is set to be honored in the University of Illinois' final regular-season game against Michigan a couple of hours  before Mosqueda-Lewis and Stokes are recognized in Storrs.

"She is really excited," Morgan Tuck said. "Right now she is trying to figure out what she wants to do after. I think it is hitting her that she only has a couple of months left in college."

Her younger sister won't be able to make it to Taylor Tuck's Senior Day event but her parents will proudly be there to offer support. Considering that the Tucks grew up in Bolingbrook, Illinois, it would figure to be a short trip for David and Lydia Tuck to make it to the University of Illinois on Senior Night. That is not the case.

"My parents moved to Virginia at the beginning of this year," Morgan Tuck said, "My dad got a promotion so they will go back."

Morgan Tuck has mixed feelings about the fact that when she goes home, it will not be to see old friends in her hometown, just about 30 miles outside of Chicago but in a much different place.

"The house is better which is nice but it is kind of weird for me going back to the house," Tuck said. "It is great for my parents, my dad got a promotion and he deserved it. It is something new."

Junior guard Moriah Jefferson has been named the Player of Week both by ESPNW and the American Athletic Conference after averaging 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3 steals in wins over No. 1 South Carolina and Tulane.

Jefferson was 13 of 19 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range with one of the misses being a half-court heave as time expired in the first half against Tulane. She also had just one turnover in 66 minutes.

Jefferson is the third member of the same recruiting class to earn AAC Player of the Week honors as Morgan Tuck and Breanna Stewart have received the award twice with Tuck also being named the ESPNW Player of the Week after her brilliant performance in the early December win at Notre Dame. When you add in that Kia Nurse has been named the AAC's Freshman of the Week twice (teammate Gabby Williams has won the award three times) four of the Huskies' five starters have received weekly accolades from the American. The lone exception is Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, who has been named to the weekly honor roll three times but has yet to earn player of the week honors.

A pair of national award late season lists and to the surprise of absolutely nobody, Breanna Stewart, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Moriah Jefferson were among the 30 players named to the Naismith watch list and the 20 on the Wooden Award list. Yet, the player who has more double-digit scoring games this season than any other player failed to make either of the lists. I think anybody who has watched even a few moments of UConn's games this season would feel strongly that there aren't 20 players more deserving of receiving national recognition than redshirt sophomore forward Morgan Tuck.

In last night's win over Tulane, it was a classic Tuck performance as she was the first Husky to hit double digits in scoring as she had 10 points and three rebounds when the Huskies raced out to a 25-4 lead. She finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and no turnovers in 21 minutes in the 87-39 win over the third-place team in the American Athletic Conference.

"Morgan may be the most unsung really good player in the country," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said after the game. "I don't know who is paying attention to Morgan when people are talking about our team. I know that Stewie, K (Mosqueda-Lewis) and Moriah they get all the attention. I don't know if anybody is talking about Tuck but for our team, what we need and as well she shoots the ball, passes it, plays defense, rebounds, inside/outside, she is one of those kids that it is like having more than one player when you have somebody like that. For our team, she is perfect. I don't know where she would fit in with the big picture throughout the country but for our team she is perfect and maybe as important if not more important than anybody we've had this year."

Coming off an impressive win over No. 1 South Carolina, it was important for the Huskies to come out with an aggressive mindset. It was Tuck who led the way, contributing the first points of the game on a 3-pointer just 1:15 into the game.

"I don't know if it was the game plan," Tuck said. "I was just trying to be aggressive and my teammates  did a good job of giving me the ball inside, I just go in there and try to finish."

After the game was over Tuck's work wasn't done. Often times Auriemma has his players take over the post-game duties of hanging out prizes to the UConn students who come out to the Huskies home games. Last night it was Tuck's turn.
"I think it is cool that they can possibly get a prize for coming out and showing support, usually there are more students in the men's game but today we had a lot of students so it is great to see our fellow students supporting us," Tuck said.

A few statistical notes from last night's game.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis had three 3-pointers as she moved into 14th place on the NCAA Division I women's basketball career list. She has the highest 3-point percentage of everybody in the top 15. She is also 10th on the Division I single-season list with a 3-point percentage of 51.4 and her career 3-point percentage of 44.9 is 13th on the NCAA Division I list.

Fellow senior Kiah Stokes had two blocked shots as she moved by Stewart and now has the third best single season mark in UConn history. Stokes now has 111 blocked shots and the only marks ahead of are 131 and 122 established by Rebecca Lobo in the 1994-95 and 1993-94 seasons.

Speaking of Stewart, she is now tied with current assistant coach Shea Ralph for 15th on UConn's career scoring list with 1,678 points.

Finally, UConn's opponent failed to attempt a free throw for just the sixth time in program history and first time since an NCAA tournament game against Iowa State on March 28, 2010.

"We try really, really hard to not foul and today both teams tried really hard not to foul," Auriemma said. "My team takes it personally. I have said this 1,000 times since I was 25 years old, there are only two reasons why you foul, one is you are dumb or two you are just not any good. If you have a combination of the two, if you have one or the other, you are salvageable. If you dumb and you are not any good, you foul all the time so to me guys who foul jump shooters, guys who foul with one second left on the shot clock, it is just mindless. I just don't think you can be a good player if you foul."

The story angle would have been straight out of a Hollywood script. The California born Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis tied the UConn career record by making her 318th career 3-pointer early in the second half of Wednesday's demolition of Tulsa. Certainly Mosqueda-Lewis must have gotten some inspiration as a youngster watching Diana Taurasi, another former California high school phenom, light it up during her days as a Husky.

Not exactly.

Mosqueda-Lewis answered the inquiry with "I was born in 1993" and after doing the math admitted that she had yet to be bitten by the basketball bug as a 10-year-old which is her age when Taurasi played her final collegiate game.

For those trivia buffs out there, the record-tying 318th career 3-pointer came off a Moriah Jefferson assist just 52 seconds into the second half in the second-ranked Huskies' 98-60 win over Tulsa before a crowd of 8,103 at the XL Center on Wednesday night.

Mosqueda-Lewis finished with 11 points in 20 minutes and will have a chance to move into sole possession on the career charts in Sunday's game at Southern Methodist.

"I don't think I will ever be at Diana's level at anything except for this so I will take it and keep going because she can't come back to do anything about it," Mosqueda-Lewis said with a laugh. "It is an awesome and it is an honor to be up there with her and be a part of UConn forever. I heard she wasn't that happy about me being that close to her (mark).

"She is definitely a player I watch now in the WNBA and especially with Coach (Geno Auriemma) being a part of USA Basketball and I have watched the Olympics she has played in and she is just an incredible competitor."

With UConn (13-1, 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference) rolling past the Hurricanes, the starters spent much of the second half on the bench. When Mosqueda-Lewis checked out with 15:34 remaining, there was a chance that her night was done. However, most of the crowd remained and began to rustle a bit when Mosqueda-Lewis reentered the game with 7:09 to play. If they hung around to see the historic 3-pointer No. 319, they would leave disappointed as she could not bring herself to jack up another 3 with the game so out of hand.

"When I was with that last group, it was more about getting them some minutes and kind of help them go through the offense and get a feeling of what it is like to be out there," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I think today was the longest they have been out there without really getting a sub so I am getting a feel of what the starters feel like when we stay out there for 10 minutes straight, see how mentally strong we have to be to. I think it is going to be important for them to get some cohesiveness together."

Mosqueda-Lewis, who failed to make a 3 in her last two games which is something that had not previously occurred in her collegiate career, had two 3-point attempts in the first 49 seconds of the game. She missed the first one but made the second and added another trey later in the half to pull within one of Taurasi's mark setting the stage for her record-tying shot early in the second half.

"Things like that happen because you get a lot of opportunities to play with some great players, to work on your game and be at a place where we share the ball really well, get so many assists every game that if you are a great shooter and you come here and play a lot, you are going to have a lot of opportunities to make shots," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "That doesn't mean you are going to make them. What K has done is something is very difficult to do. I know everybody wants to be seen as more than just a shooter, they want to be seen as a basketball player and I a happy for K that she has become a much better basketball player."

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' pursuit of UConn's career 3-point record has been well documented in recent days and weeks and she could move into first place with four 3s against St. John's tomorrow. However, there is another milestone within reach.

Since Geno Auriemma took over the UConn program 30 seasons ago there have been 120 players to suit up for the Huskies and only four have scored 1,500 points in fewer than 100 games. With 18 points tomorrow Breanna Stewart would make it a list of five. Stewart, with 1,482 points in 88 career games, would be the third fastest player to reach 1,500 points as it took Maya Moore just 81 games and Kerry Bascom 87 games. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of all of this is that when it happens she will join Mosqueda-Lewis (who did it in 97 games) to make two of the five players on the list on the current team.

Here's the list

81: Maya Moore
87: Kerry Bascom
90: Rebecca Lobo
97: Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis
100: Kara Wolters
102; Svetlana Abrosimova
104: Nykesha Sales
106: Tina Charles
107: Diana Taurasi
108: Shea Ralph
NOTE: Cathy Bochain scored 1,534 points in 108 games but I was unable to determine how many games it took her to get to 1,500 points.