Katie Lou Samuelson Brings UConn Back to the Final Four

ALBANY, NY -- Six points. Two possessions. That’s all that separated UConn women’s basketball from Louisville with three minutes left in the Elite Eight. A trip to Tampa for the Final Four hanging in the balance. The Huskies were up but it was coming down to crunch time. They needed a big play.

Enter Katie Lou Samuelson, who is often billed as a star on this team but rarely the hero.

The senior took a hand-off from Napheesa Collier, who screened Samuelson’s defender. With a sliver of space, No. 33 pulled up and fired from three. She sank it and got fouled, sending the pro-UConn crowd at the Times Union Center into a frenzy while taking the wind out of the Cardinals’ sails.

“You could see it on their faces. I remember turning back around and they couldn’t believe it,” Crystal Dangerfield said. “To see that on another team’s face, you know you have them.”

It was the exact play the Huskies needed in that moment. And it was a play head coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t sure Katie Lou Samuelson was capable of 24 hours earlier.

All tournament, Samuelson has battled a back injury. She managed it fine in the first two rounds but in the Sweet Sixteen, Samuelson only scored six points, Auriemma acknowledged the obvious: she wasn’t moving well. As much as the back affected her physically, it was also beginning to wear on her.

“Yesterday, she was not in a great place,” Auriemma said. “Physically or mentally, emotionally, she was really beat up.”

Auriemma knew his team couldn’t beat Louisville without his senior star ready to go. And Samuelson knew her college career was over if she repeated her UCLA performance. So the two sat down and just talked. And that’s just what Samuelson needed to get out of her funk. She responded with a game-high 29 points while also hitting seven three-pointers against Louisville.

“For her to make that kind of turnaround in two days was unbelievable,” Auriemma said. “She found the strength.”

Samuelson was determined not to let her back be the reason her college career ended. Instead, thanks to adrenaline and plenty of toughness, she pushed through.

“Definitely a lot of adrenaline, I felt good,” she said. “We’re at the point where if you don’t play as hard as you can, it’s going to be the end of the road. I’m going to put everything on the line no matter what and it’s easy to overcome anything you’re going through and that’s kind of the feeling I had.”

On UConn’s first few trips down the court, Samuelson wasn’t very involved in the offense. But when she pulled up for her first three, the shot sank right through the bucket. It was a much-needed boost for Samuelson.

“I felt good,” she said. “It was a shot that I’ve been taking in practice and I’ve been shooting well in practice, so I’m going to take the shots that I feel are good shots. But once the first one goes in, that just helps me keep going.”

Samuelson certainly did keep going. She not only hit the shots in rhythm, she stopped Louisville runs in their tracks. In the first half, the Cardinals scored six straight to cut UConn’s lead down to four. The next time down the court, Samuelson took matters into her own hands, hitting a tough step-back jumper for three that swung momentum back into the Huskies’ favor. Seemingly every time Louisville looked like it would get back in the game, Samuelson answered.

“She made some shots today that only really special players make at this particular time,” Auriemma said. “This is when players separate themselves in these games.”

The importance of Samuelson’s performance was elevated by the fact that fellow senior Napheesa Collier had an off-night with just 12 points. But when Samuelson missed time with her back injury, it was Collier who stepped up in the absence. Samuelson wanted to return the favor.

“We talked after the game and I said ‘Way to have my back,’ because obviously I was struggling today and she stepped up so amazingly,” Collier explained. “She said ‘You’ve had my back, now it’s time for me to get yours.’ That’s exactly what she did. She played amazing and I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

When Louisville made its furious comeback attempt late in the fourth quarter, the Cardinals got within two and fouled Samuelson to stop the clock. She went to the line for two seismic free throws. Make both and it’s a two-possession game. Miss one (or both) and a three-pointer can tie or win the game for Louisville.

Samuelson sank both. The Cardinals didn’t score again. And when the final buzzer sounded, UConn exploded off the bench like a team that just reached the first Final Four in school history, not the 12th in a row and 20th overall. In celebration, Dangerfield hopped on Samuelson’s back for a piggy back ride, bad back and all.

“She felt weightless to me,” Samuelson smiled. “All adrenaline.”

It was a defining performance in Samuelson’s career. Not just because it came in the Elite Eight but because of the injury, the subpar performance the game prior, everything. It was the type of performance that cements a legacy, regardless of what happens next weekend.

“Great players make great plays and this time of the year, if you have great players, you have a chance to win,” Auriemma said.

“Given where she was Friday and yesterday and some of the things she's battling with off the court, remarkable. That's the best thing I could say. Absolutely remarkable.”

For more post-game video from Geno and other players, check out our Basketball Forum!