K and K Connection

Here is our UCONN expert Art Benedict, talking about two of the best players on the UCONN women's basketball team!!!!

 

Article by Art Benedict

You’ve heard it before and you will most likely hear it again. “Records were made to be broken,” most certainly in the weather department. It went down as a “record breaking” February in the temperature. (Yes, I am sick of winter too). But let’s turn our attention to more pleasant records  particularly the ones that were broken, by two of the great UConn women’s basketball players, to put on the Husky uniforms, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (KML as she is affectionately known), and Kiah Stokes. It was Senior Day at Gampel last Saturday and I attended the festivities in Storrs. KML was one of many young basketball players that were looking to open up some eyes at the USA Basketball junior national tryouts.

She then went on to play in the McDonalds All American game and the WBCA All-American game, and as they say, the rest is history.

On Saturday they honored KML for her virtue of earning first-team All-America honors in just her sophomore year. Two years ago she reached the 1,000-point plateau during the Senior Day game and on Saturday she needed just 4 points to become the eighth UConn player to score 2,000 and she did that within the first 5 minutes of the game against Memphis. She is also took over the lead in 3-pointers made with 319, passing another Husky great Diana Turasi in a 98-60 win over Tulsa at the XL Center. She is currently at 362 3-pointers and counting.  A really affectionate moment at Senior Day for the capacity crowd was when KML’s tiny little brother ran onto the court of KML and jumped into the arms of a waiting head coach Geno Auriemma. KML had 21 points in that win against Memphis on Saturday and also helped the Huskies win yet another AAC regular season title. UConn has not lost a conference game since the inception of the AAC last season and she has been a big part of that.

Along with Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis is the other half of the “K and K Connection” and  another senior  that was honored on Saturday, Kia Stokes. Stokes was not known for her presence on the court the first two seasons. She averaged just 12 minutes a game, but with the help of Geno and assistant head coach Chris Daley as well as the rest of the Husky staff she became one of the best defensive post players to ever play at UConn.

Another record fell on Saturday as well thanks to Kiah Stokes, and that was with two blocks she moved into second place on the single season block list. And with her first blocked shot on Saturday she has 124 blocks this season, just behind Rebecca Lobo's single-season school record of 131. She is the fourth player in UConn history to block 300 or more shots, joining Lobo (396), Kara Wolters (370) and Tina Charles (304). Her 302 career blocks come despite starting just four games.

And as an honorable mention to this blog, Mosqueda-Lewis had her name placed on UConn's Huskies of Honor wall before the game, becoming the 16th women's player recognized by the school with a plaque. UConn is 136-10 during Mosqueda-Lewis and Stokes' four years at the school.

So now that the records are in the books for these two great players as well as Geno’s 900th career victory as coach of the Huskies earlier in the season, the task ahead is easy. Win the AAC Championship, get a Number 1 seed and win another National Championship for the UConn Huskies and their legion of fans in Connecticut, around the country and maybe around the world.

I was tagged on a Facebook entry (I’m terrible at Facebook btw). I did reply to the text that mentioned Kaleena and Kiah, and I did manage to reply without messing that up. And it read as follows: “Congratulations on Senior Day to the K & K Connection. See you in the WNBA”, and I know. That’s a big LOL!!!!