College Hoops Highlights: Senior Spotlight on UConn's Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis


 

Throughout the remainder of the NCAA women’s basketball season, Megan Hughes Perry of the WNBA Basketball Operations Staff will shed some light on some of the top college storylines across the country.

With six weeks of college basketball under our belts, and only four months until the 2015 WNBA Draft, it’s time to tune into the women’s college basketball landscape. Fully recognizing that it is still early with respect to the basketball calendar, and there is still so much to be decided, let’s take a timeout — if you will — to recognize a few seniors that have turned up their games this season.

Over the course of the next few months we’ll spotlight a few of the nation’s top college seniors who have had extraordinary performances worthy of a shout out.

This week the spotlight is on UConn’s Kaleena Mosqueda- Lewis.

Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis

While the season is young, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis has already separated herself from the sea of talented senior prospects with her electrifying shooting ability and off-the-charts efficiency. She is playing some of the best basketball of her career, garnering the attention of WNBA coaches, GMs, scouts and more.

Currently, Mosqueda-Lewis is the most efficient scorer in the nation. When we break it down and look at her efficiency percentages, Mosqueda-Lewis’ true shooting percentage (a measure of her shooting efficiency that accounts for field goals, 3-point field goals, and free throws) is a staggering 78 percent.

Furthermore, we recognize that numbers don’t always tell the complete story. It’s not just about her stat line, but the way in which she scores. Mosqueda-Lewis has made a habit out of shining brightly in the biggest moments. In her debut this season, she “casually” dropped 30 points on UC Davis while hitting 10 out of 13 three-point attempts. To follow that up, in the marquee matchup against UConn’s archrival, Notre Dame, Kaleena displayed that it’s not always about the quantity of points, but the quality. She only tallied 12 points against the Irish, but what is most significant about that stat is how she scored. Kaleena scored with it mattered most. She hit two of five 3-point field goals at pivotal moments that seemed to take the wind out of the Irish and lengthened the Huskies lead in the game.

And if that was all for not, who doesn’t love a winner? Mosqueda-Lewis carries a quiet confidence and when it comes down to it, she has proven she has the ability to get the job done. There are those that question her conditioning and whether it has (and will have) an impact on her on-court performance. To that she’s been quoted as saying, “ … Numbers don’t lie. I don’t think my performance was altered or is impacted by how I look. If some people think so, well, my team won.”

In conclusion, you have to give credit where credit is due. Mosqueda-Lewis has given us all a reason to be excited about her game. There are few better indicators of greatness than trophies on the shelf and she is in pursuit of her third consecutive national championship.

Enough said.