DoggyDaddy's UConn/Nebraska Post Game Report

 






 

 

 

No. 1 UConn Huskies                                                Nebraska

88                                                                    46 

 

 Post Game report

Congrats to Breanna Stewart, who was honored before the game for scoring her 2000th point for her career. It's doubtful she can catch Maya Moore who had 3036 points. But she will pass everyone else eventually.     

This game was pretty similar in how it played out in the first quarter compared to the UConn/Kansas State game. A little sloppy play by UConn early. At one point Nebraska had a lead at 13-12. It was 16-14 UConn before Stewart hit a three pointer with a few seconds left in the quarter. Stewart was dominating in the quarter with 10 points and 3 blocks. 

 

UConn showed how dominant they could be starting in the second quarter. Including Stewart three pointer to end the 1st quarter, UConn went on a 14-2 run to take a 30-16 lead with 6 minutes left until halftime. Nebraska settled down some but it was really the Breanna Stewart show. She added 8 more points to finish the half with 18.

 

Nebraska played well for the first 9:30 of the first quarter being only down 16-14 and the last 6 minutes of the second quarter, where they were only down to UConn 10-8. That's a 26-22 score over 15:30 out of 20 minutes in the first half. Doing the math, that's 14-2 over those fateful remaining 4:30. It's what UConn does to opponents. It only takes one big run.

 

Behind some terrific defense from Jefferson and Tuck, UConn ran and ran against the slower Huskers. They moved out to a huge lead by outscoring Nebraska 23-6 in the quarter. At that point, the game was over and UConn put in the bench players Collier, Samuelson, Chong and Ekmark to finish out the game in the 4th quarter. They did a fantastic job, mostly behind the breakout game from Lou who had 9 points in the quarter.   

 

I nailed the MOV in this game in my game analysis post where I said UConn by 40+.

 

 Game Stats and Box Score 

 

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  Game Quotes From Geno

On the difficulty of guarding Breanna Stewart

“Every day in practice we are trying to put Stewart in situations that we think will be difficult for the other team to guard. You watch her now and there's this really, really deliberate way she goes about what she wants to do. And she comes from different spots on the floor to do what she wants.''

On the outstanding performance of bench
“We hadn’t been getting a lot of contributions from our bench. Today was great, everyone that came off the bench played very well. I think that’s what we are capable of doing. I think we are capable of having players come off the bench and change the complexion of the game a little bit.”

On next game versus Chattanooga
“I’m looking forward to it. I know it will be a different type of game than Wednesday’s game against DePaul. There will two completely different kinds of approaches to the two games. I am looking forward to playing them in their arena, I’ve never been there before and I am sure they will have a great crowd.”

 

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Game Quotes from Nebraska Coach Connie Yori

 

On the game
“If the game had ended at the six minute mark we would have been fine. It’s a 40 minute game and we got exposed in a lot of ways. I thought we stayed positive. There is a reason why UConn has won 10 National Championships. There’s a reason why they are as good as they are. They obviously have great players but they have great detail and discipline as well. Not every talented team has those things, and that is what sets them apart.”

On their defense
“We have played nothing even remotely in the vicinity, in the same galaxy as the competition level we saw today. We got exposed. I thought we played well early, but as the game got going we got to cognizant of our own players. Our help defense wasn’t very good, but again, UConn will expose what you are doing wrong.”

On the play of Jessica Shepard
“Jess has got a chance to be a very good player for us. Just like a lot of freshmen, she has a lot to learn. She needs to continue to learn how to play hard and be consistent doing that. She isn’t in the basketball shape we want right now, but she is someone who has lots and lots of ability and can be a great player for us if she continues to do the right things.”

On what she will take away from this game
“I think we can find some good possessions. We can say we played x number of good possessions out of x number.”

 

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Player Evaluations 

Player of the Game - Breanna Stewart 

 

This was maybe the most complete game I've seen Stewart play. She was 10-11 from the field, 3-4 on threes and added 10 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists. She is making the game look so easy.  

 

"Coming out of halftime, we wanted to make sure we were running appropriately. We wanted to come out and make sure they were having a difficult time scoring the basketball."

"I thought the first quarter they hung in with us and the score was close, and then we went on a pretty good run. From there we just kept pushing the tempo and made them uncomfortable."

"I was just feeling confident and getting shots from all over and they were going in. I don't think I was forcing anything. It was fun."

 

 

 

Moriah Jefferson

 

Interesting game for Jefferson. It was another game where she just let everyone else shoot. She took only five shots, but she made three of them. She was also 1-2 on threes. She added 5 assist to her 7 points and 2 steals in only 26 minutes. She missed a few in the first half with either a wardrobe malfunction or a full bladder. Mo sprinted to the locker room and sprinted back with a grin on her face.   

 

 Morgan Tuck

 

Morgan is still missing a few post shots that she made regularly last season. I'm sure she will have a few games where she misses only a few shots and bring up her FG% to over 50%. That being said, she had a solid performance and played some great defense. She scored 9 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and doled out 5 assists.

  

Kia Nurse

Nurse had a tough night shooting going 1-6 from the field, 0-3 on threes and 1-2 from the FT line. Her line was a pedestrian 3 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. I'm sure she is disappointed with her results. She still played a big part in holding Nebraska to 46 points with her terrific on the ball defense.
 

  Gabby William

  

Gabby played only 16 minutes. Partly because of early foul trouble, but I think Geno will keep her minutes down to keep the wear and tear on her knees to a minimum. She still managed 4 points 5 rebounds and 2 steals.

Katie Lou Samuelson

 

 YES!!! Finally a breakout game for Katie Lou. She looked good in all aspects of her game. Lou played a robust 22 minutes and took advantage of her time on the court. After a slow 8 minutes of play in the first half, where she was scoreless, Samuelson played 14 minutes in the second half. In that half she was 5-6 from the field, 2-3 on threes and 2-2 from the free throw line. She scored 14 points and added 2 assists with zero turnovers. Can this carry over to her future play? I don't see why not. I believe that THIS is the real Katie Lou Samuelson, not the nervous imposter of the first two games.    

 
"I felt like my finishing was very good this game. I had good finishing with contact and trying to box out. More than ever, I'm focusing on the team."

"Did I need this? Definitely. It felt good to get things going finally. But you just can't be happy with this. I have to keep moving forward." 

“(Saturday), especially, I was not really focusing on my shot and I think that’s why everything started to fall in place for me. This game I tried to do more things and that just got me going and then I did hit some shots. So it was just really good and I’ve just got to build on it from here.”

 

Napheesa Collier

  

Napheesa had a similar game to Katie in that she really didn't make a splash in the first half. She was 2-2 from the field in only 5 minutes. She had NO rebounds as well. Geno gave her 17 minutes in the second half and she played much better. She was 3-3 from the field. She scored 10 points and added 2 rebounds and 2 steals. Her defense was excellent. She did have five turnovers. Eh.....she's a freshman.       

 

"We're trying to help out the team as best we can. We come off the bench trying to have as much energy as possible."

"That was exciting. Since I've been on the team, we haven't trailed yet. It was a close game and it was fun to go back and forth with them and see how we handled the pressure."
 

Sanyia Chong

 

Chong had a terrific game. As with Collier and Samuelson, Sanyia had a terrific second half. She played 12 minutes in the second half going 3-5 from the field and 2-3 on threes. Overall she scored 10 points and 3 rebounds in 20 terrific minutes.

 

I particularly liked her drive to the basket in the second quarter showing great quickness with her ball fake and dribble drive. 

 

Oh, she also played improved defense. This was a great performance for Chong.   

 

Courtney Ekmark

 

Ekmark only played 11 minutes but she showed great maturity to her game. She scored 6 points and added 2 assists with no turnovers. She looked confident and even Geno pointed to her play after the game.  

  

Final Thoughts

  

Great news on the injury front as it was announced by the SNY announcers. Butler is expected to see some minutes against Chattanooga Monday night. I can't wait to add her to my pregame analysis.  

 

Not so great new about Boykin as it appears she is not that close to returning.

 

The great contributions by the bench is the story of the game to me. You expect the starters to do what they do, but Samuelson, Collier, Chong and Ekmark scored 40 of the 86 points for UConn. Add Butler to the mix and you have a terrific 5 player team.

 

Next up is Monday in Tennessee. No, not the Lady Vols. UConn is visiting Chattanooga. The Mocs played an excellent game against Tennessee before losing 59-57. Something tells me this game won't be that close.