Moriah Jefferson

Moriah Jefferson
College Connecticut
Conference American Athletic Conference
Sport Basketball
Position Point Guard
Jersey # 4
Class Junior
Career 2012–present
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Weight 122 lb (55 kg)
Nationality American
Born (1994-03-08) March 8, 1994
Dallas, Texas
High school Texas Home Educators' Sports Association, Inc.
Awards
2012 Parade All-America
2012 WBCA High School All-American
2012 McDonald’s High School All-American
2012 MaxPreps All-America first team
2012 USA Today All-USA first team
Medal record
Women’s Basketball
Competitor for  United States
U18 and U19
2012 U18 Gurabo, Puerto Rico Team competition
2013 U19 Klaipėda and Panevėžys, Lithuania Team competition
Pan American Games
2015 Toronto Team competition

Moriah Jefferson (born March 8, 1994) is an American basketball player at the University of Connecticut. She completed her high school education in a home-schooled environment in Dallas, Texas while she played basketball as part of the Texas Home Educators Sports Association.

Early life

Jefferson is the daughter of Robin and Lorenza Jefferson. She has two brothers Joshua and Jeremiah and one sister Danielle Noble.[1]

High School career

Jefferson played five varsity seasons with the Texas Home Educators Sports Association (THESA) as a homeschooled athlete. Jefferson began playing with THESA's varsity squad as an eighth grader and compiled 509 points, 85 rebounds, 87 assists. In her freshman year she started in 50 of 51 games played and averaged 19.5 ppg., 1.7 rpg., 1.7 apg. and 2.8 spg. to help THESA to a 42-10 record. As a sophomore, Jefferson averaged 17.5 ppg. to help her team to a 42-9 record. During her junior year, she started all 50 games and averaged 21.8 ppg., 5.0 rpg., 4.0 apg. and 4.0 spg. in aiding her team to a 42-8 record. As a senior, she averaged 17.3 ppg., 3.8 rpg., 3.6 apg. and 5.1 spg. to lead her team to a 41-6 record. Jefferson helped lead the Riders to five NCHBC basketball titles and five NCHBC Texas Region titles and finished her career 3,354 points, 825 rebounds and 728 steals in her career.[1]

Jefferson was selected to the 2012 WBCA High School Coaches' All-America Team. She participated in the 2012 WBCA High School All-America Game, scoring four points.[2][3]

Jefferson was recruited by many schools; she visited Baylor, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M, and was also considering Kentucky and Tennessee, before cutting her list down to Baylor, Connecticut and Texas A&M. She ended up choosing Connecticut.[4][5] She is the first recruit from the state of Texas to play for UConn.[6]

USA Basketball

Jefferson was named to the USA Basketball U18 team, coached by Katie Meier, the head coach of the University of Miami. Among Jefferson's team mates were Connecticut-bound players Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck. The team played in the Ninth Women's FIBA Americas U18 Championship For Women, held in Gurabo, Puerto Rico during August 2012. The USA team won all five games to win the championship and the gold medal. After winning the first fours easily, with winning margins of 40 points or more, the USA fell behind by double-digits in the gold medal game against Brazil. The team came back from the deficit, and went on to win the game 71–47. Jefferson averaged 5.6 points per game, and, although the shortest player on the team at 5' 7", she tied for third in blocks with five over the course of the event.[7]

Jefferson continued with the team as it became the U19 team, and competed on behalf of the USA at the for the Tenth FIBA U19 World Championship, held in Klaipėda and Panevėžys, Lithuania, in July 2013. The team won all nine games, with a winning margin averaging 43 points per game. Jefferson scored 4.0 points per game, and was third on her team with 31 assists over the course of the event.[8]

Pam Am games 2015

Jefferson was a member of the USA Women's Pan American Team which participated in basketball at the 2015 Pan American Games held in Toronto, Canada July 10 to 26, 2015. The USA opened preliminary play with a game against Brazil. Although they opened up a 16 point lead in the second quarter Brazil came back, going on a 14–0 run to take a two point lead in the third quarter. The USA responded with an 11–2 run with foul shot contributions by Jefferson and a three-point basket from Breanna Stewart. The USA ended up winning the close game 75–69. Jefferson scored 21 points.[9]

The second game was against the Dominican Republic. USA scored the first eight points and was never threatened. USA won 94–55. Kelsey Plum led the team with five assists.[10] The final preliminary game USA played Puerto Rico. USA led by only three points at the end of the third quarter, largely due to the play of Carla Cortijo Sanchez who scored 24 points, but left with an injury late in the game. After the injury the US extended the lead to 18 points and ended up with a 93–77 win, good for first place in their group.[11]

In the semifinal game, Cuba led the USA by as many as 14 points in the third quarter. The USA battled back and took a late lead. With under eight seconds to go, the USA was down by one point while Cuba had the ball. Linnae Harper stole the ball and made two free throws to give the USA the lead. Cuba missed its final shot to give the USA the win 65–64, propelling them into the gold-medal game against Canada.[12]

The gold-medal game matched up the host team Canada against USA, in a sold out arena dominated by fans in red and white and waving the Canadian flag. The Canadian team, arm in arm, sang Oh Canada as the respective national anthems were played.

After trading baskets early, the US edged out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter. However the Canadians, spurred on by the home crowd cheering, fought back and tied up the game at halftime. In the third quarter, it was Canada's time to shine as they outscored the US 26–15. The lead would reach as high as 18 points. The USA would fight back, but not all the way and Canada won the game and the gold-medal 81–73. It was Canada's first gold-medal in basketball in the Pan Am games. Nurse was the star for Canada with 33 points, hitting 11 of her 12 free-throw attempts in 10 of her 17 field-goal attempts including two of three three-pointers.[13][14][15][16]

University of Connecticut Career

Freshman Year

A member of the 2013 Big East All-Rookie Team, Jefferson has put together progressively finer seasons over the last two years ... Has dished-out 396 assists over the last two season, which is the second-highest assists total over a two-year span in school history. Sue Bird recorded 400 assists from 2000-02 ... Her 195 helpers in 2013-14 is the fifth-highest single-season mark in school history while her 191 helpers in 2014-15 is the sixth-best single-season total. Jefferson has also shown great proclivity for taking care of the ball and was fifth nationally with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.1-1 during the 2014-15 season ... The Glenn Heights, Texas native led the team with 100 steals during her junior season and became only the second Husky all-time to record back-to-back years with at least 100 steals, joining Nykesha Sales and Rita Williams ... Her 258 career thefts rank eighth in UConn history ... Joined Sue Bird (2000, 2001, 2002) Diana Taurasi (2003, 2004) and Renee Montgomery (2009) in 2015 as Huskies to be honored with the Nancy Lieberman Award, which honors the nation's top point guard. Jefferson was a finalist for the award in 2014 ... Earned a spot on the Women's Basketball Coaches and United States Basketball Writers Association All-America Teams while also earning mention as an Associated Press Second Team selection ... Jefferson's 191 assists during the 2014-15 season were the most by a UConn junior. [17]

University of Connecticut Statistics

Moriah Jefferson Statistics at University of Connecticut[18]
Year G FG FGA PCT 3FG 3FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A TO B S MIN PTS AVG
2012–13 39 73 172 0.424 17 64 0.266 19 25 0.760 64 1.64 69 49 2 52 677 182 4.7
2013–14 40 157 237 0.575 33 79 0.418 53 69 0.768 136 3.40 195 66 9 106 1187 400 10.0
2014–15 39 193 329 0.587 56 113 0.496 43 51 0.843 112 2.87 191 62 5 100 1121 485 12.4
Totals 118 423 774 0.547 106 256 0.414 115 145 0.793 243 2.64 455 177 16 258 2985 1067 9.0

Awards and honors

References

  1. 1 2 "Moriah Jefferson". USA Basketball. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Past WBCA HS Coaches' All-America Teams". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ "WBCA High School All-America Game Box Scores". Women's Basketball Coaches Association. Retrieved June 29, 2014.
  4. ↑ Hansen, Chris (April 14, 2011). "Moriah Jefferson unfazed by rumors". ESPN. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
  5. ↑ Halley, Jim (2011-07-29). "DFW T-Jack Elite guard Moriah Jefferson is at home on court". USA Today. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
  6. ↑ Fuller, Jim (2013-02-18). "UCONN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Moriah Jefferson chose Huskies over hometown Lady Bears". New Haven Register (Journal Register CT). Retrieved February 15, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Ninth Women's Fiba Americas U18 Championship For Women -- 2012". USA Basketball. September 27, 2012. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Tenth FIBA U19 World Championship — 2013". USA Basketball. October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on September 7, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  9. ↑ "U.S. Women Fend Off Brazil To Open Pan American Games With A 75-69 Victory". USA Basketball. July 16, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  10. ↑ "U.S. Pan American Women Cruise Past Dominican Republic 94-55". USA Basketball. July 17, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Fourth-Quarter Surge Propels U.S. Women Past Puerto Rico 93-77 And Into Pan American Games Semifinals". USA Basketball. July 18, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  12. ↑ "U.S. Advances To Pan American Games Gold Medal Game With Thrilling 65-64 Win Over Cuba". USA Basketball. July 19, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
  13. ↑ "U.S. Women Collect Silver At Pan American Games After Falling To Host Canada 81-73". USA Basketball. July 20, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  14. ↑ "U.S. Women Collect Silver At Pan American Games After Falling To Host Canada 81-73". USA Basketball. July 20, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  15. ↑ Caple, Jim. "Battle of UConn Hoops Stars Goes To Canada in Pan Am Final". ESPN. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  16. ↑ Smith, Doug (July 20, 2015). "Canada wins historic Pan Am women’s basketball gold". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 23, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Moriah Jefferson". Retrieved 2014-06-02.
  18. ↑ "4 Moriah Jefferson". Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Five Women's Hoops Players Garner AP All-American Recognition". UConnHuskies.com. April 1, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
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