Wildcats Host Black Bears on Whiteout Weekend

Saturday, February 2

Durham, N.H.

1 PM

University of New Hampshire

Maine

Buy Tickets

Amanda Torres (Photo by Audrey Powell)

2/1/2019 2:59:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Women’s hoops is one of four home events against Maine this weekend.

DURHAM, N.H. - The University of New Hampshire women's basketball team opens a two-game homestand and the second half of its America East Conference schedule with a game against Maine in Lundholm Gymnasium on Saturday at 1 p.m. as part of White Out Weekend in Durham.

The UNH men's and women's hockey teams are also playing Maine at home this weekend.

The Black Bears were picked to win the America East title in the league's preseason poll and own a share of the top spot in the standings coming into the weekend. Maine and Hartford are both 7-1 in league games.

Senior forward Alli Gribbin (Keller, Texas) scored 15 points and pulled down five rebounds to lead UNH in its most recent game at UAlbany on Wednesday. Gribbin had her first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 13 rebounds at UMBC in the game before that.

UNH is 4-17 overall and finished 1-7 in its first time through the league.

Maine is 14-7 overall.

Senior guard Parise Rossignol set a new school record with eight three-point baskets and had 32 points Wednesday to lead Maine to its third straight win, 79-45, over UMass Lowell.

The Wildcats are still without their leading scorer, junior forward Ashley Storey (Cumberland, Maine). Storey has missed the last six games and is expected to miss at least six weeks with a foot injury.

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

STORYLINES

Senior Alli Gribbin led UNH with 15 points at Albany on Wednesday.
Gribbin had her first career-double double in Saturday's game at UMBC.
Freshman guard Kari Brekke scored a career-high 20 points at UMBC.
She was named America East Rookie of the Week on Monday.
Brekke averages 9.6 points a game to lead America East freshmen in scoring.
Leading scorer Ashley Storey has missed the last six games and is expected to be out at least six weeks with a foot injury.
UNH's win over UMass Lowell was the 134^th at UNH for coach Maureen Magarity.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Senior forward Alli Gribbin led the Wildcats with 15 points and five rebounds at UAlbany on Wednesday. She had her first career double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds at UMBC on Saturday.

Freshman guard Kari Brekke earned her second America East Rookie of the Week of the season on Monday for her efforts in games from Jan. 20-27. She had 20 points against UMBC and 12 against Hartford.

UNH's last win was a 56-53 decision at UMass Lowell. That 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 have played their last six games without leading scorer Ashley Storey. The 6-foot-3 junior forward leads the team in scoring at 17.1 points per game and averages 6.1 rebounds per game. Storey is expected to miss at least six weeks with a foot injury.

Brekke is averaging 13 points a game through the last seven games to lead the Wildcats. Her overall average of 9.6 points a game is tops among America East freshmen.

Freshman forward Ivy Gogolin has averaged 8.5 points and 6.3 rebounds in the last six games while replacing Storey in the lineup.

Brekke made six of her 13 three-pointers combined against Hartford and UMBC. She has 34 of the team's 98 three-pointers.

UNH is 4-17 overall and 1-7 in America East.

Magarity has a 134-129 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.

Junior guard Caroline Soucy averages 8.5 points a game and sophomore guard Amanda Torres is at 6.3.

Torres is fourth in America East free throw shooting (50-for-68 for 73.5 percent).

Brekke is tied for 10th in the league in assists at 2.5 per game and is third in minutes played at 35.8 per game.

The Wildcats are scoring an average of 54.6 points a game and allowing 66.7 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.

MAINE

- Maine is 14-7 overall and 7-1 in America East.
- The Black Bears share the league lead with Hartford.
- Maine's loss in the league was at Hartford, 49-46, on Jan. 16.
- The Black Bears have beaten Stony Brook, 68-54, Binghamton, 95-66, and UMass Lowell, 79-45, in their last three games.
- Senior guard Parise Rossignol made a school record eight three-pointers against UMass Lowell.
- She had a career-best 32 points in the game.
- She made eight of her 11 three-point attempts and 12 of her 19 field goal attempts overall.
- Maine averages 67.2 points a game overall, which leads the league.
- The Black Bears allow 61.1 per game.
- They are outscoring America East teams in league games, 72.3 points a game to 52.5.
- Maine leads the league in field goal percentage at 42.8 percent.
- The Black Bears are second in three-point percentage at 32.7 percent.
- They are second in the league with 174 three-pointers made.
- Blanca Millan, a 6-foot-1 guard, leads the league in scoring average at 17.6 points per game.
- She is also tops in the league in steals with 2.7 a game.
- Senior guard Tanesha Sutton averages 13.4 points game and Parise Rossignol is at 12.2.
- Sutton averages 6.9 rebounds a game.
- Millan, sophomore forward Maeve Carroll and Rossignol average 4.3 rebounds each.
- Rossignol leads America East in three-point percentage (44-for-103 for 42.7 percent).
- She is third in the league in made threes with 44, Millan is fifth with 41 and sophomore guard Dor Saar is tied for eighth with 36.
- Saar is second in the league with 5.3 assists per game and first in assist to turnover ratio at 2.5.
- Maine beat UNH, 67-46, in Bangor on Jan. 2 in the first league game of the year for the teams.
- Ashley Storey had 20 points for UNH in that game.
- Maine leads the series, 54-32.
- The Black Bears have won the last five games in the series.
- Amy Vachon is in her second full season as Maine's head coach.
- She's a 2000 Maine graduate.
- A two-time captain, she helped the Black Bears to four straight NCAA appearances.

HOME COOKING

The Wildcats are 3-6 in Lundholm Gymnasium this season.

The Wildcats will have four home games in February and one in March.

After Maine on Saturday, they play UMass Lowell on Wednesday at 7 p.m. They play Vermont in Lundholm on Wednesday, Feb. 13 and Albany at home on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at noon.

UNH closes the regular season with a home game against UMBC on Saturday, March 2 at noon.

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

SIDELINED

The depth of the Wildcats – especially in the frontcourt – has taken a major hit this season.

Junior forward Ashley Storey (Cumberland, Maine) is the latest to be sidelined. She's been out of the lineup since the UMass Lowell game on Jan. 9 and is expected to miss at least six weeks with a foot injury.

Three Wildcats – including two frontcourt players – are 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 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 was one of the leading scorers in America East at 17.1 points per game when she was sidelined and also was among the league leaders in several other categories.

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."

WEEKLY HONORS

Freshman guard Kari Brekke was named America East Rookie of the Week on Jan. 28.

It was the second time Brekke was named Rookie of the Week this season and the third time a Wildcat has received the award.

Brekke scored a career-high 20 points at UMBC, following up a 12-point night against Hartford. She made six of her 13 three-pointers combined in the games.

Freshman guard Kali Grimm (Norwood Young America, Minn.) was named America East Rookie of the Week on Jan. 14.

Grimm came off the bench and averaged 14 points and two rebounds a game in a pair of America East Conference contests.

She led three Wildcat freshmen in double figures with 15 points in a 56-53 win at UMass Lowell on Jan. 9. It was UNH's first conference win of the season.

Grimm had 13 points in an 82-63 loss to Stony Brook on Jan. 12.

In each game, Grimm made four of her eight three-point attempts. The four three-pointers matched the UNH best for the season.

Brekke also earned the award for games the week of Dec. 3-10.

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

THOSE DOUBLE-DOUBLES

Alli Gribbin's double-double (11 points, 13 rebounds) against UMBC was the second straight for a Wildcat and sixth for the season by a fifth different player.

Ivy Gogolin had 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double against Hartford on Jan. 23.

Only three of the five players with double-doubles were active as the America East portion of the schedule hit its midway point.

Maggie Ahearn had two double-doubles in the nine games she played and Storey had one before being sidelined.

Junior guard Caroline Soucy had the other with 18 points and 10 rebounds against Holy Cross.

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. They matched that number with 10 three-pointers against Stony Brook on Jan. 12.

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.

Kali Grimm and Caroline Soucy each had four three-pointers against Stony Brook.

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 134-129 overall record and grabbed sole possession of the No. 3 spot in 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.

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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