‘Cats Wrap up Regular Season, Host UMBC Saturday for Senior Day (12 P.M., ESPN3)

DURHAM, N.H. - Senior forward Alli Gribbin (Keller, Texas) and a couple of freshmen, guard Kari Brekke (Appleton, Wis.) and forward Ivy Gogolin (Hopkinton, Mass.), lead the University of New Hampshire women's basketball team into Senior Day and its final game of the regular season against UMBC on Saturday in Lundholm Gymnasium.

The Wildcats will also use the game as a warmup for the America East tournament. They wrapped up a spot in the eight-team event when UMass Lowell dropped its final game of the regular season to Maine on Wednesday night.

UNH will play its America East quarterfinal game at either Maine or Hartford on Wednesday night. The team's opponent for the first-round game will be determined after Saturday's final day results.

The Wildcats are coming off a loss to UAlbany on Wednesday afternoon. Brekke led UNH with 15 points and Gogolin had 11.

Gribbin is the only senior on the team and is a captain along with junior forward Ashley Storey (Cumberland, Maine), who has missed the second half of the season with a foot injury.

Gogolin earned her first America East Rookie of the Week award on Monday. She scored a career-high 23 points in UNH's game against Hartford on Feb. 20. The 23 points also matched UNH's best total for the season.

Gogolin became the third Wildcat to collect Rookie of the Week honors this season. Brekke has received the award three times and guard Kali Grimm (Norwood Young America, Minn.) has been named once.

The Wildcats have lost their last four games after a two-game win streak that included victories over UMass Lowell on Feb. 6 and at Binghamton on Feb. 9.

The Binghamton triumph was No. 136 in her career at UNH for Maureen Magarity, who is in her ninth season as the Wildcat head coach. Magarity is tied for second place in career victories with the program.

UNH is 6-22 overall and 3-12 in America East.

UMBC is 9-19 overall and 2-13 in the league.

The Retrievers beat Albany, 69-60, on Saturday, but lost at home to Stony Brook, 70-59, on Wednesday night.

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

STORYLINES:

Forward and co-captain Alli Gribbin is UNH's lone senior.
Kari Brekke averages 10.1 points a game to lead America East freshmen in scoring.
Ivy Gogolin earned her first America East Rookie of the Week Award on Feb. 25.
Leading scorer Ashley Storey has missed the last 13 games and is out indefinitely with a foot injury.
Coach Maureen Magarity is tied for second in career wins at UNH with 136.
Janee'A Summers and Te'yJah Oliver average 11.3 points a game for UMBC.
The Retrievers beat UNH, 64-62, on Jan. 26 in Maryland.

THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

UNH will celebrate senior forward Alli Gribbin in its Senior Day game against UMBC on Saturday at noon in Lundholm Gymnasium.

Gribbin served as a team captain along with junior forward Ashley Storey on this year's team. She set her career highs in points with 17 at Vermont on Jan. 16 and rebounds with 13 at UMBC on Jan. 26.

The Wildcats take a 6-22 overall record and 3-12 mark in America East into their final regular season game.

They will enter the America East tournament as either the seventh of eighth seed and will play at Maine or Hartford in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 6.

Freshman guard Kari Brekke (Appleton, Wis.) led UNH with 15 points against UAlbany on Wednesday.

The game marked the eighth time Brekke has led the Wildcats in scoring this season. She is averaging 10.1 points a game and leads America East freshmen in scoring.

Brekke leads the team in made three-pointers and is 48-for-142 (33.8 percent) from beyond the arc. UNH has 125 three-point baskets as a team.

The Wildcats have lost their last four games after a two-game win streak.

Their most recent win, at Binghamton, 54-53, on Feb. 9, was No. 136 at UNH for head coach Maureen Magarity and moved her into a tie for No. 2 on the program's list for career victories.

The Wildcats have played their last 13 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 out indefinitely with a foot injury.

Gogolin has averaged 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds a game in the last 13 games while replacing Storey in the starting lineup.

Magarity has a 136-134 record in her eight-plus seasons with the Wildcats. She is tied with Cecilia DeMarco at No. 2 in career wins. DeMarco went 136-86 from 1977-86.

Soucy averages 8.8 points a game and sophomore guard Amanda Torres is at 6.9.

Torres is fourth in America East free throw shooting (65-for-91 for 71.4 percent).

Brekke is 42-for-52 in free throws (80.8 percent) but does not have enough shots to qualify for the league rankings.

Brekke is tied for 13^th in the league in assists at 2.3 per game and is third in minutes played at 36.1 per game.

The Wildcats are scoring an average of 53.2 points a game and allowing 65 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.

UMBC

- UMBC is 9-19 overall and 2-13 in America East.
- The Retrievers beat UAlbany, 69-60, on Feb. 23.
- Te'yJah Oliver had 21 points and eight rebounds in that game.
- Janee'A Summers had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
- UMBC lost to Stony Brook, 70-59, on Wednesday.
- Tyler Moore had 19 points in that game.
- UMBC was up 33-26 at the half.
- Summers and Oliver each average 11.3 points per game.
- Summers also averages 6.8 rebounds a game.
- Summers is second in the league in free throw percentage at 86.7 percent.
- Moore leads the Retrievers in three-point field goals with 51.
- UMBC is tied for third in the league in three-pointers with 182 or 6.3 per game.
- Carlee Dewey is UMBC's acting head coach.
- She's a 2010 UMBC graduate.
- UMBC held off UNH for a 64-62 win in Baltimore on Jan. 26.
- The Wildcats outscored the Retrievers 23-11 in the fourth quarter.

HOME COOKING

The Wildcats are 4-9 in Lundholm Gymnasium this season.

They close the regular season with their Senior Day game against UMBC on Saturday.

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) has 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 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 forward Ivy Gogolin was named America East Rookie of the Week on Feb. 25.

It was the first time Gogolin has won the award and the fifth time a Wildcat has won it this season. Three different players have been named Rookie of the Week.

Gogolin matched her career high with 23 points against Hartford on Feb. 20.

Freshman guard Kari Brekke has been named Rookie of the Week three times this season and freshman guard Kali Grimm has won the award once.

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 136-134 overall record and is tied for the No. 2 spot in program wins.

Cecilia DeMarco (136-86 from 1977-86) shares the second spot on the list. Kathy Sanborn (170-126 from 1986-97) is at the top of the list.

THOSE DOUBLE-DOUBLES

Make that nine double-doubles from five different players for the Wildcats this season.

Caroline Soucy had her second straight double-double and third of the season against Vermont on Feb. 13 and Ivy Gogolin had her second of the season the same night.

Soucy had 17 points and a career-high 12 rebounds against Vermont and Gogolin had 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds as well.

Soucy's followed up her (11-point, career-high 11 rebound) double-double against Binghamton on Feb. 9.

It marked the first time a Wildcat had consecutive double-doubles in exactly two years. Carlie Pogue did it with 32 points and 17 rebounds against Binghamton on Feb. 12, 2017 and again with 19 points and 10 rebounds against Maine on Feb. 15.

Soucy and Gogolin gave UNH double-doubles in the same game for the second time this season. Soucy and Maggie Ahearn did it in a 74-62 win over Holy Cross on Dec. 9.

Alli Gribbin had a double-double (11 points, 13 rebounds) against UMBC on Jan. 26.

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 season nears its end.

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

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.

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.

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