At first, Katie Lou Samuelson got one three-pointer to drop. That’s normally how it starts: See the ball go through the net once, and everything else falls into place.
UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson hit an NCAA record 10 threes without missing
She didn’t even play the fourth quarter.
David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
But Connecticut’s leading scorer didn’t just hit a few shots. She exploded for 40 points on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting from downtown in the No. 1 Huskies’ 100-44 win over South Florida in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game on Monday.
Samuelson’s 10 triples made without a miss set a record for the most consecutive made in women’s D-1 basketball history, according to ESPN Stats & Info. It ties Andre Smith’s similar record in men’s D-1 basketball history and eclipses the NBA record nine threes made without missing hit twice by Ben Gordon and once by Latrell Sprewell.
The WNBA record for most made threes without missing is six.
Samuelson posted the fourth 40-point performance in UConn history (Nykesha Sales, 1997; Maya Moore, 2009 & 2010), and she did it without playing in the fourth quarter.
“I kept shooting, it felt good and I was getting open shots,” the sophomore guard said, according to The Hartford Courant’s Paul Doyle. “My teammates kept getting me the ball, so I was going to keep shooting until … actually, I was going to keep shooting.”
Samuelson is averaging 21 points per game for the Huskies this season, shooting just under 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from three-point range. She scored 29 of her 40 points in the first half, falling just one point shy of UConn’s record set by Tiffany Hayes in 2010.
Connecticut (32-0) won’t know who it plays in the NCAA tournament until Monday. But that’s just enough time for Samuelson to bask in her glory until her team meets its next opponent.
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