Wildcats Return Home to Face Nor’easters

Thursday, December 6

Durham, N.H.

7 PM

University of New Hampshire

University of New England

Tickets

Caroline Soucy (Photo by Travis Pendergrass)

Photo by: Travis Prendergrass

12/5/2018 2:12:00 PM | Women's Basketball

UNH plays their first of four home December games.

DURHAM, N.H. – The University of New Hampshire women's basketball team opens a two-game homestand with a game against the University of New England out of Biddeford, Maine, on Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Lundholm Gymnasium.

The Wildcats follow up with a game at Lundholm against Holy Cross on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Award-winning author and ESPN journalist Jackie MacMullan '82, a former Wildcat basketball standout and captain of the 1981-82 team, will be signing her newest book, "Basketball: A Love Story," in the lobby of Lundholm on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. up until the 1 p.m. game time.

For tickets, visit UNHWildcats.com or call (603) 862-4000.

UNH STORYLINES

Ashley Storey is averaging 16.8 points a game, which is fourth in America East.
Kari Brekke leads the league's freshmen in scoring at 9.8 points a game.
She has made 15 of the team's 28 three-point baskets.
The Wildcats are tied for first place in the league in free throw percentage (72-for-97 for 74.2 percent).
Coach Maureen Magarity is in her ninth season as Wildcat head coach.
UNH and the University of New England have never played.
Jackie MacMullan will be signing copies of her new book: "Basketball: A Love Story" from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. before Sunday's home game against Holy Cross.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Ashley Storey led the Wildcats with 16 points and six rebounds and added three steals in a loss at South Florida on Friday. Kari Brekke had eight points and three assists. Maggie Ahearn led UNH in rebounds with eight and also had four rebounds and a career-best four assists.

UNH collected its first win of the season over Bryant, 79-74, in its last home game on Sunday, Nov. 25.

Storey had 20 points to lead five players in double figures against Bryant. Brekke had 16 points, Maggie Ahearn 14, Amanda Torres 13 and Soucy 10.

The Bryant game was the first time UNH had five players in double figures in a game since a 71-43 win over Sacred Heart on Dec. 18, 2016. Storey with 12 points and Soucy with 10 were among the players in double figures that night. The others were Carlie Pogue with 16, Kat Fogarty with 15 and Aliza Simpson with 10.

Alli Gribbin blocked five shots against Bryant. Pogue was the last Wildcat to block five shots in a game. She did it in a 58-51 win over UMass Lowell on Jan. 14, 2016.

Storey leads the team in scoring (16.8 points per game) and rebounding (6.4). Brekke averages 9.2 points a game and Ahearn is at 8.4. Caroline Soucy averages 7.3 points per game and Amanda Torres is at 6.8.

Storey ranks fourth in America East in scoring, is second in field goal percentage (56-for-109 for 51.4 percent) and is tied for fifth in free throw percentage (20-for-28 for 71.8 percent).

The Wildcats are tied for first in the league in free throw percentage at 74.2 percent (72-79).

They are scoring an average of 54.5 points a game and allowing 69.4 per game.

Maureen Magarity has led UNH to its best two-year run in the history of the program the last two seasons.

UNH went 19-12 overall and 9-7 in America East least season, following up on 26-6 and 15-1 marks in 2016-17. The Wildcats advanced to the America East semifinals each season. The team's 45 victories over the two years combined were the best two-year win total in school history.

Storey and senior Alli Gribbin, the lone senior on the team, are the Wildcat captains.

SCOUTING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND

- UNE beat Commonwealth Coast Conference rival Wentworth Institute, 94-38, Tuesday night at home.
- The Nor'Easters improved to 4-5 overall and 2-0 in the league.
- Junior Jocelyn Chaput of Nashua, N.H., leads UNE in scoring at 11.6 points a game and rebounding with 6.3 a game.
- Junior Ashley Coneys of Dover, N.H., averages 11.1 points and 4.4 rebounds a game.
- Freshman Abby Cavallaro leads the team with 16 three-pointers.
- Junior Sadie Nelson and sophomore Elyssa Nicholas have each made 14 threes.
- The team is 62-for-180 (34.4 percent) in three-pointers.
- The Nor'Easters average 65.9 points a game and allow 64.8.
- Anthony Ewing, a 1995 graduate of Keene State College, is in his 12^th season as head coach at UNE.
- He has led the team to 20 or more wins in each of the last 10 seasons.
- The Nor'Easters have made the NCAA Division III tournament in eight of the last nine seasons.

HOME COOKING

Only two of UNH's eight games in November were at home. In contrast, the Wildcats play four of their five December games in Lundholm Gymnasium.

After the University of New England on Thursday, they play Holy Cross on Sunday at 1 p.m.; against Dartmouth on Friday, Dec. 21 at 11 a.m. and against Princeton on Saturday, Dec. 29 at 1 p.m.

The Wildcats open the America East portion of the schedule with a game at Maine on Wednesday, Jan. 2.

They play their first home league game against Binghamton on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 1 p.m.

Tickets for all home games are available by calling 603-862-4000 or at www.unhwildcats.com.

NEXT UP: JACKIE MAC IS BACK

Acclaimed author and former UNH basketball captain Jackie MacMullan, '82, will be signing copies of her latest book, "Basketball: A Love Story" before the Holy Cross game.

The book was inspired by the ESPN series of the same name and is in the form of an oral history and includes interviews with well over 100 of the biggest names in basketball, from Bill Russell and Bob Cousy to Larry Bird, from Rebecca Lobo to LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

The book will be available for purchase and MacMullan will sign copies from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The game begins at 1. MacMullan is donating $5 from each book purchased to the UNH women's basketball program.

ASHLEY'S STOREY

Ashley Storey had hit the 20-point mark in a game once in her career coming into the season. She's did it four times in a row from the Brown game through the Bryant game. She had 21 points against Brown, matched her career high with 22 points against Sacred Heart and Northeastern and had 20 against Bryant.

Storey, who missed all of last season while she rehabilitated from surgeries, added a career-best 12 rebounds against Sacred Heart for the second double-double of her career.

Her first career 22-point night was against Binghamton on Feb. 6, 2016. Her first double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) came against Stony Brook on Jan. 4, 2017.

Storey also is third in America East with 2.4 steals per game.

"She's just so long and she moves really well," said coach Maureen Magarity. "Her arms are so long. Someone will think they have an easy pass into the post and she'll get in there and deflect it."

HOW YOUNG IS YOUNG?

So just how young are these Wildcats?

UNH has one senior on the roster with three juniors, two sophomores and seven freshmen.

The average age of the Wildcats on opening day, Nov. 9, was 19 years, eight months and 12 days.

FOR STARTERS

Juniors Ashley Storey and Caroline Soucy, sophomores Maggie Ahearn and Amanda Torres and freshman Kari Brekke started each of the first four games of the season for the Wildcats.

The five starters had a total of 26 starts as Wildcats going into the season. Storey started 17 games in the 2015-16 season and Torres started nine games last season.

By contrast, UNH's five starters in its final game last March had a total of 273 starts between them.

THE FRONTCOURT

Ashley Storey, 6-foot-3, returns to lead the team in the frontcourt. Storey started 17 games her freshman year and was named to the America East All Rookie team after averaging 5.4 points and 3.4 rebounds She averaged 4.9 points and 4 rebounds as a sophomore before missing last season.

"We expect a lot from Ashley," Magarity said. "She's come back much stronger and on the court she hasn't missed a beat. We're going to rely on her to rebound and score. She can score in a lot of different ways and can run the floor very well for a big kid."

Sophomore Maggie Ahearn, 6-foot-2, sat out last season after transferring to UNH from Providence College. She played five games as a freshman at Providence.

Storey and Ahearn are joined up front by three freshmen: 6-foot Faith Bonett, 6-foot-2 Ivy Gogolin and 6-foot-3 Mary Foster.

THE BACKCOURT

Sophomore Amanda Torres, 5-foot-7, is the lone returning starter from last season.

"Amanda had a great freshman year and gained a lot of valuable experience when she ended up as the starting point guard," Magarity said. "She needs to step up even more with her leadership this year. She pushes the ball in transition and gets the team going. She's very aggressive off the bounce and her first step is really quick and her outside shooting continues to improve."

Alli Gribbin, a 5-foot-11 senior captain, junior Caroline Soucy, 5-foot-9, and junior Sarah Clement, 5-foot-8, are the upper classmen in the backcourt.

The freshmen guards are 5-foot-6 Kari Brekke, 5-foot-9 Kali Grimm, 5-foot-10 Mariah Gonzalez and 5-foot-5 Sarah Serbascewicz.

THE COACH

Maureen Magarity, in her ninth year as head coach, has led UNH to winning seasons in each of the last two and four of the last five seasons.

She guided the team to a record-smashing mark of 26-6 overall and 15-1 in America East in 2016-17. The 26 wins were three more than the Wildcats had ever won in a season and the league record was the team's best ever and earned the school's first America East women's basketball regular season championship.

Along the way, the team set a school record with 13 consecutive wins.

UNH went 19-12 overall and 9-7 in the league last year. The 45-18 overall record over the last two seasons was the top mark for any two-year stretch in program history.

Magarity has a 131-119 overall record and stands fourth in all-time wins at UNH. She is two wins out of the third spot and five out of the No. 2 spot on the list.

Sue Johnson (133-150 record from 1997 to 2007) holds down the No. 3 spot in wins. Cecilia DeMarco (136-86 from 1977-86) is at No. 2. Kathy Sanborn (170-126 from 1986-97) is at the top of the list.

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

UNH played Minnesota and North Dakota State for the first time to open the season.

The Wildcats played in front of a sold-out crowd of 14,625 at Minnesota as the Golden Gophers celebrated the return of former school and WNBA standout Lindsay Whalen as head coach.

The opening weekend was not the first time UNH teams had squared off with the Golden Gophers and North Dakota State Bison.

Among the encounters:

The UNH women's hockey team beat Minnesota, 4-1, in the semifinals of the American Women's College Hockey Alliance tournament in 1998.
The Wildcats went on to win the AWCHA title, before the NCAA sponsored the event, with a 4-1 win over Brown.
The Minnesota men's hockey team beat UNH, 5-1, in the NCAA championship game in 2003 in Buffalo.
The UNH football team fell at North Dakota State in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I FCS tournament on Dec. 20, 2013.
The Bison went on to win the national championship. They have won six of the last seven FCS national titles.