UConn commit Breanna Stewart contines to shine in upstate New York basketball

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – It's just before 8 o'clock on a Friday night and most of the crowd has streamed out of Corcoran High on the southwest side of this upstate city. Inside, Jim Marsh is still greeting supporters who've come over to console the veteran coach after a 68-31 loss, but he doesn't need cheering up.

"When you lose, it's donuts at practice the next morning," he jokes with one of his players.

As is his habit, Marsh coached this game right down to the final buzzer. But he knew his team had no chance in this one, not with a young roster lacking much height.

And not on a night when his Cougars were facing Breanna Stewart.

"We played against Sue Bird and Chamique Holdsclaw and Shenise Johnson, and I coached Camille Murphy here," he said, listing two stars from Christ the King and one from Rush-Henrietta who won New York's Miss Basketball Award, plus one (Murphy) who would have won the state's most prestigious basketball award if not for Bird's presence in the class of '98.

"But if I had to choose between those kids and her," he continued, gesturing with a tilt of the head and flick of his eyes to the lanky, 6-foot-4 senior chatting with fans and parents near center court, "I'd take her."

That's been the overwhelming sentiment for a lot of people and for a long time. Being a state of 20-something million people, New York is never hurting for gifted basketball players, but Stewart is off-the-charts good and the player anyone would take in the blink of an eye.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma thought so. He beat Pat Summit and a host of other Division I coaches to the punch by getting Stewart's name on a college letter of intent.

USA Basketball has had the low-post standout on speed dial for three years and took the virtually unprecedented step of bringing Stewart to Mexico last fall for the Pan American Games.

Organizers of the Nike Tournament of Champions in Arizona thought New York's 2011 Gatorade Player of the Year worthy, too, and invited her Cicero-North Syracuse (Cicero, N.Y.) squad to play in the rarified air of the Joe Smith Division at the 96-team basketball event over the holidays.

And last week, the McDonald's All-American Game and Women's Basketball Coaches Association extended Stewart invitations to their elite senior games three days apart in Chicago and Denver, respectively.

"When I started high school I wanted to have a great time and meet a lot of new people," Stewart said, recalling her ambitions beyond a successful basketball career.

With a resume like the one she has compiled over five varsity seasons and her remaining to-do list, consider it "mission accomplished."

Hers is a career marked by steady growth from Stewart's days on the varsity as an eighth-grader, when she was already an imposing defender but came by much of her scoring by means of her height advantage. As the years progressed, her ability to gracefully run the floor never changed, but her arsenal on offense did en route to more than 2,000 career points. Stewart owns the low blocks – she might as well post a sign there that says "Showings by appointment only" – but she's also dropped a dozen 3-pointers on opponents this season.

Her last moments on the court during the lopsided victory against Corcoran demonstrated Stewart's prowess. On consecutive plays early in the fourth quarter she:

* Raised her hand in the low post to call for the ball, then turned, elevated and swished a feathery 8-footer from the left baseline.

* Picked off an entry pass into the lane on defense, put the ball to the floor in traffic and drove the length of the court for an attempted layup. The ball rolled off the rim, but Stewart reached back with her right hand and one-touched it off the glass and through the bucket for the two points.

It's not unreasonable to suggest an observer could attend a month of games across New York without seeing a girl execute either of those plays in such textbook fashion. Stewart pulled off both – on consecutive possessions. And the news only gets worse for opponents. Marsh, the Syracuse Corcoran coach, points to the proximity of the 3-point arc.

"You have to come out here and guard her," he says with a trace of incredulity in his voice, "or you're going to have a problem."

Think of it as the culmination of all the days and nights on the court over the last five years, beginning at Cicero-North Syracuse but including healthy doses of summer ball with the Philadelphia Belles after being approached by Mike Flynn as a freshman and, of course, representing her country on USA Basketball teams in international competition.

"I think when I started getting a lot of attention from big AAU teams and big college coaches I was kind of like, ‘Wow, you could be good at this if you apply yourself.' I fell in love with the sport and that's when I started working to be the best that I could be."

It culminated last month with – for the moment – the biggest day in her career. Hours before breaking the 2,000-point mark, Stewart was informed she had been selected as National Women's Player of the Year by USA Basketball after leading her squad to world U-17 and U-19 gold medals in the span of about a year.

It's an honor normally reserved for college players or even standouts already in the WNBA and on Olympic teams, but C-NS coach Eric Smith says it won't change Stewart now or in the fall at UConn because nothing seems to faze her.

"I don't know she's ever had an ‘I'm in awe' moment," the seventh-year coach said. "Even with her first trial at the U-16's, we were a little worried but she just went there with the attitude that she'd work hard and do the best she could do. She is not one of those kids where anything affects how she plays.

"I think that's allowed her to get to this point. And after playing in the Pan Am Games and in the Under-19 World Championships, almost anything she could face in Storrs will pale in comparison."

Stewart isn't quite ready to look that far down the literal and proverbial road just yet. The high school regular season ended over the weekend with a loss to Christ the King in New York City. Now there are Section III, New York State Public High School Athletic Association and possibly Federation championships to chase before she begins a college phase of her life that she anticipates will be nothing other than normal.

"There really isn't anything I'll worry about, it's more about excitement," she said. "I've been away from home for a while, traveling with USA Basketball and stuff like that so that's no big deal. Of course I'm going to miss my family, but I know I can do this."

There's a five-year body of evidence that says she's right.