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Kia Nurse makes Hamilton proud at NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship

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Kia Nurse made some history last night. Kia, a 19 year old freshman and her UConn Huskies defeated the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish 63-53, to win the NCAA Women’s Basketball championship. The first for Nurse, the third in a row for UConn, and a record tenth for their coach, Geno Auriemma.
Her teammates call her “grand baby”, but today we can all call Kia Nurse a national champion. She’s only the second Canadian to win an NCAA Division One women’s basketball championship, and the first Hamiltonian.
“It’s really hard to put words to, but it’s definitely an incredible feeling. Last night was like living out a dream, so it’s pretty awesome” said Kia Nurse by phone today. “I was lucky enough to have a lot of people watching at home and obviously my family and friends come down to support. So Hamilton’s been really good to me lately and I’m really thankful for that.”
Nurse scored nine points and had three rebounds in the championship game. Throughout the regular season, she averaged 10.2 points per game, with a .408 three-point percentage.
Last month, she was awarded the American Athletic Conference’s rookie of the year award alongside fellow Huskies Breanna Stewart, who was named Player of the Year, and Geno Auriemma who won Coach of the Year.
This is the 10th national title, and third one in a row for Coach Geno Auriemma, who was impressed early-on in the season, by Nurse’s defensive play.
“He told me you can make your role as big as you want it to be, so just continue to be aggressive and do what you need to do, to help the team win.”
And that’s exactly what she did, right up until the final buzzer. “Right as the clock was winding down it just set-in that we had it, and it was just an incredible feeling to finally be in that stage and win the first one.”