University of Connecticut Athletics
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis Displays Confidence Against SMU
2/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2014
By Marya Fratoni
Before a crowd of 7,839 at Gampel Pavillion on Tuesday night, the UConn Women's Basketball team (26-0) dominated the Southern Methodist University Mustangs (14-8) by a score of 102-41. That night also marked one of Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' finest overall games since returning from injury.
Kaleena suffered a nerve contusion in her shooting elbow from a fall in the second half against Stanford on November 11, which sidelined her for eight games. An elbow injury, much less to the shooting arm, is not necessarily a painless one to deal with and then bounce back unchanged. Though the Anaheim Hills, California native returned with a bang on a career-high 7 three-pointers against then-No. 2 Duke, the adrenaline rush soon cooled and Mosqueda-Lewis' play leveled off along with it.
In her 14 games since returning she has done her fair share of contributing, but it was clear in yesterday's contest that she is beginning to play more confidently and become more involved in all aspects of the game. Head Coach Geno Auriemma was very pleased with Mosqueda-Lewis' performance that evening:
"I've seen more of an aggressiveness in practice, more of a determination to get what she wants out of this instead of just take what comes," commented Auriemma. "There's a bit of a different look about her. She came back from the Temple game and her practices since then have been really good and today is an indication of that and how hard she's working in practice."
Kaleena spoke equally as confidently about her performance on Tuesday evening--as she rightfully should. Contributing on both ends of the court, Mosqueda-Lewis netted 16 points for the Huskies in addition to recording 11 rebounds, 10 of which were on the defensive end. The junior forward fell just three assists shy of a triple-double, which only two UConn players have achieved in program history, and one of them happens to be her teammate Stefanie Dolson.
"Coach just talks about how once you get involved in every aspect of the game, the scoring and everything else just comes along. And he's right," said Mosqueda-Lewis. "I've been trying to get involved in the defense, trying to get more rebounds, get in the passing lanes, and just keep moving."
Although her shooting percentage wasn't as high as it has been in the past, Kaleena doesn't feel the need to get overly worked up about it at this point in time.
"I try not to let it bother me that I wasn't making shots," explained Kaleena. "The shots that I took were good ones and they just didn't go in. It's just a matter of moving and continuing to get good shots."
Luckily for her, Mosqueda-Lewis has a whole gang of teammates eager to help her get back in her normal groove. The team is always willing to back each other up and step up in the place of another struggling teammate: "We have so many different players on this team who can contribute and it makes us have less pressure on one another because we know the next guy can do just as much as we can."
