UNH Hosts Stony Brook Saturday (1 P.M., ESPN3)

Saturday, January 12

Durham, N.H.

1 PM

University of New Hampshire

Stony Brook

Tickets

Amanda Torres (Photo by Matthew Troisi)

1/11/2019 3:38:00 PM | Women's Basketball

‘Cats face Seawolves in AE Quarters rematch.

DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire women's basketball team is coming off its first America East win of the season as it heads into its annual Alumni Day game on Saturday against Stony Brook in Lundholm Gymnasium at 1 p.m.

Freshman guard Kali Grimm (Norwood Young America, Minn.) came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points and lead the Wildcats to a 56-53 triumph at UMass Lowell on Wednesday night. Fellow freshmen Ivy Gogolin and Kari Brekke added 10 points each.

The win was No. 134 for coach Maureen Magarity at UNH, putting her at No. 3 on the program's list for career wins.

Against UMass Lowell, UNH overcame the loss of go-to junior forward Ashley Storey, who missed the game with a foot injury.

The Wildcats take a 4-12 overall record and 1-2 mark in the league into the Stony Brook game. The Seawolves are 13-3 overall and 2-1 in the league.

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

STORYLINES

Ashley Storey averages 17.1 points a game to rank tied for second in America East in scoring.
Kali Grimm scored a career-high 15 points against UMass Lowell.
Storey missed the UMass Lowell game with an injury.
The win over UMass Lowell was the 134^th at UNH for Coach Maureen Magarity.
She moved into the No. 3 spot in career wins in the program.
The Wildcats have an Alumni Game scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m.
Stony Brook senior guard Shania Johnson made seven three-pointers in her last game.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Kali Grimm came off the bench to score 15 points and lead three freshmen in double figures in Wednesday's 56-53 win at UMass Lowell. Ivy Gogolin and Kari Brekke each added 10 points to the cause.

The win was No. 134 at UNH for head coach Maureen Magarity, moving her into sole possession of the No. 3 spot on the program's list of career wins.

The Wildcats – led by the trio of freshmen – stepped up in a big way at UMass Lowell after it was determined at game-time that their go-to junior forward, Ashley Storey, was not going to be able to play because of an injury.

Gogolin replaced Storey in the starting lineup for her third start of the season. She led the team with six rebounds.

Grimm made four of the eight three-point shots she attempted. The four three-pointers matched the team's high for the season, set by Brekke in the season opener at Minnesota.

Storey averages 17.1 points a game to lead the Wildcats and rank tied for second in scoring in America East. She is among the league leaders in several other categories as well. Storey has scored at least 20 points in seven games this season.

UNH is 4-12 overall and 1-2 in America East.

Magarity has a 134-124 record in her eight-plus seasons with the Wildcats. She is two wins out of the No. 2 spot on the career wins list. Cecilia DeMarco went 136-86 from 1977-86.

Storey leads the team in rebounding (6.1 per game). Caroline Soucy averages 8.1 points a game. Kari Brekke leads America East freshmen in scoring at 8.3 points a game and Amanda Torres is at 6.9.

Storey is also among the league leaders in rebounding (tied for fifth at 6.1), field goal percentage (third, 94-for-197 for 47.7 percent) and free throw shooting (fourth, 59-81 for 72.8 percent). Torres is third in free throw shooting (41-for-56 for 73.2 percent).

Brekke is tied for seventh in the league in assists at 2.6 per game and tied for second in minutes played at 35.6 per game. She leads UNH with 24 three-point baskets.

The Wildcats are scoring an average of 54.6 points a game and allowing 66.3 per game.

Magarity 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 last 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.

STONY BROOK

- Shania "Shorty" Johnson scored 26 points to lead the Seawolves to a 65-56 win at Binghamton on Wednesday night.
- The Seawolves improved to 13-3 overall and 2-1 in America East with the win.
- They are averaging a league-best 66.5 points a game and allowing a league-low 56.8.
- Johnson, a 5-foot-1 senior guard, matched a program record with seven three-point baskets against Binghamton.
- She was 7-for-17 in three-pointers and also had seven rebounds, six assists and five steals.
- Sophomore forward India Pagan had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists vs. Binghamton.
- Stony Brook lost its America East opener at home to Hartford, 64-36.
- The Seawolves beat UMass Lowell at home, 76-56.
- Johnson leads America East in scoring at 17.3 points per game.
- She also leads the league in assists at 7.9 per game.
- She leads the league in three-pointers with 56, 3.5 per game.
- Johnson is third in three-point percentage (58-for-158 for 35.4 percent).
- Stony Brook has 117 three-pointers as a team. UNH has 68.
- Pagan averages 12.3 points and 6.2 rebounds a game.
- She leads the league in field goal percentage (81-for-142 for 57 percent).
- Caroline McCombs is in her fifth season as head coach.
- She is a 1998 graduate of Youngstown State.
- The Seawolves were 18-12 overall and 10-6 in America East last season.
- UNH leads the series, 26-15.
- The teams split the regular season series last year, each winning on the other's home court.
- The Wildcats beat Stony Brook, 70-49, in the America East quarterfinals in Portland last March.

HOME COOKING

The Wildcats are 3-4 in Lundholm Gymnasium this season.

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

The Alumni Day festivities Saturday will include an annual Alumni Game at 10 a.m., preceding UNH's 1 p.m. game against Stony Brook.

The other remaining home game in January is against Hartford on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m.

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

SIDELINED FOR THE SEASON

The depth of the Wildcats – especially in the frontcourt – has taken a hit this season with three players out for the year with knee injuries.

Sophomore forward Maggie Ahearn (Marshfield, Mass.) started seven of the first eight games of the season and played in nine games total before being injured. She averaged 8.7 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds in her nine games.

Ahearn had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds against Brown and another with 12 points and 11 rebounds against Holy Cross. The 14 rebounds are a UNH high for the season.

Ahearn sat out last season as a transfer from Providence College.

Freshman forward Faith Bonett (Moorestown, N.J.) played in the first three games of the season as a backup and then was injured during practice.

Junior guard Sarah Clement (Falmouth, Maine) has missed the entire season as she rehabilitates from offseason surgery.

ASHLEY'S STOREY

Ashley Storey had hit the 20-point mark in a game once in her career coming into the season.

She's done it seven times this year, including 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. She set a new career high with 23 points against Holy Cross and matched that, too, against Central Connecticut State.

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 double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) came against Stony Brook on Jan. 4, 2017.

Storey also leads the team with two 2.0 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."

HONORS FOR KARI

Kari Brekke was named America East Rookie of the Week for her performances the week of Dec. 3-10.

Brekke averaged 7.5 points and six assists per game in a pair of Wildcat wins.

Brekke had nine points and doubled her career high with eight assists in UNH's 74-62 win over Holy Cross on Dec. 9 in Lundholm. She made two of her four three-point field goal attempts in the game. She has a team-high 22 three-point field goals this season.

Brekke had six points and four assists in UNH's 68-44 win over the University of New England on Dec. 6.

The Rookie of the Week honors for Brekke were the first America East weekly honors earned by a Wildcat this season.

RAINING TREYS

The Wildcats made 10 of the 16 three-point shots they attempted against Holy Cross, their highest total for made threes in seven years.

The last time the Wildcats had as many as 10 three-pointers was Dec. 3, 2011 when they hit 12 in a loss to Harvard.

Ashley Storey made all three of the three-pointers she took against Holy Cross. Caroline Soucy also made three and Kari Brekke had a pair. Maggie Ahearn and Alli Gribbin each made one three-pointer in the game.

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 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 134-124 overall record and grabbed the sole possession of the No. 3in all-time wins at UNH with the victory against UMass Lowell. She is two wins out of the No. 2 spot on the list.

Cecilia DeMarco (136-86 from 1977-86) is at No. 2 on the wins list. Kathy Sanborn (170-126 from 1986-97) is at the top of the list.

JACKIE CAME BACK

Acclaimed author and former UNH basketball captain Jackie MacMullan, '82, signed 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.

MacMullan donated $5 from each book purchased to the UNH women's basketball program.

DOUBLING UP

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.

Ashley Storey had 20 points, Kari Brekke 16, Maggie Ahearn 14, Amanda Torres 13 and Caroline Soucy 10 against Bryant.

Against Sacred Heart two years ago, Storey with 12 points and Soucy with 10 were among the players in double figures. 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.

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.

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.

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