Katie Lou Samuelson was named the ALL-USA Girls Basketball Player of the Year in 2014-15 (Photo: Kelvin Kuo, USA TODAY Sports)
The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team continued its record winning streak, reaching 98 games with Tuesday’s victory against Cincinnati.
UConn’s last loss was Nov. 17, 2014, in overtime against Stanford. Amazingly, that loss snapped a 46-game winning streak.
Here’s one thing we know: It helps to have great players to string together national championships and winning streaks.
During the streak, seven former American Family Insurance ALL-USA high school players have suited up for the Huskies. That includes three former Players of the Year and two of the players are from the same high school and were never teammates at UConn.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a 6-foot guard who was named ALL-USA Player of the Year in 2010-11, and Katie Lou Samuelson, a 6-3 forward who was named ALL-USA Player of the Year in 2014-15, are both graduates of Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.). Each also made the ALL-USA team as high school juniors. Mosqueda-Lewis was picked third overall in the WNBA Draft in 2015.
The other ALL-USA player of the year who starred for UConn during the streak is of course, Breanna Stewart, the 2011-212 winner from Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.). Stewart was selected first overall by Seattle in the 2016 WNBA Draft and was named Rookie of the Year.
Crystal Dangerfield was first-team ALL-USA last season (Photo: Daily News Journal)
Samuelson, currently a UConn sophomore, is joined by two additional former ALL-USA players as the Huskies attempt to continue the streak.
Freshman Crystal Dangerfield was named to the first team in 2015-16 as a senior at Blackman (Murfreesboro, Tenn.). A two-time Tennessee state player of the year, she averaged 23.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 2.5 steals per game this past season, leading Blackman to a 27-4 record last season.
Sophomore Napheesa Collier was named to the first team in 2014-15 as a senior at Incarnate Word in St. Louis. She averaged 26.2 points, 13 rebounds, 4.1 blocks, 4.1 steals and 2.7 assists while leading her team to a third consecutive Class 4 state title.
Two other ALL-USA players were part of the streak as it began: Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson. Tuck, from Bolingbrook (Ill.), was named ALL-USA first team in 2011-12 and third team in 2010-11. Jefferson, from THESA (the home school athletic association in Texas), was first team ALL-USA in 2011-12.