Moriah Jefferson

Moriah Jefferson

Jefferson (right) in 2015
No. 4 – San Antonio Stars
Position Point guard
League WNBA
Personal information
Born (1994-03-08) March 8, 1994
Dallas, Texas
Nationality American
Listed height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Listed weight 122 lb (55 kg)
Career information
High school Texas Home Educators' Sports Association
College Connecticut (2012–2016)
WNBA draft 2016 / Round: 1 / Pick: 2nd overall
Selected by the San Antonio Stars
Playing career 2016–present
Career history
2016–present San Antonio Stars
Career highlights and awards
Medals
Women’s Basketball
Representing  United States
U18 and U19
2012 U18 Gurabo Team competition
2013 U19 Klaipėda and Panevėžys Team competition
Pan American Games
2015 Toronto Team competition

Moriah Jefferson (born March 8, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Stars of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted 2nd overall by the San Antonio Stars in the 2016 WNBA draft. Jefferson played point guard for UConn women's basketball team, where she won four consecutive national championships. She finished her UConn career ranked first in assists, second in steals, and as a two-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top point guard in the nation.

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 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]

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 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.

University of Connecticut Career

Jefferson led UConn to a 151-5 record over her four-year career, which included four consecutive National Championships. She finished her career in 22nd place on the UConn scoring list with 1,532, all-time leader in assists with 659, second in steals with 353. 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. She became the second player in UConn history to dished out 200 assists. She became only the second Husky all-time to record back-to-back years with at least 100 steals. Jefferson's 191 assists during the 2014-15 season were the most by a UConn junior, while her 204 helpers in 2015-16 is the best single-season total. Jefferson was named the 2014-2015 American Athletic Conference and WBCA NCAA Division I Defensive Player of the Year, and Consensus first team All-American for the second straight season.[9] Jefferson is the third UConn player to earn the Nancy Lieberman Award (nation's top point guard) and one of only four players in the award's history to claim the honor twice.

Connecticut statistics

Source[10][11]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2012-13 Connecticut 39 182 42.4 26.6 76.0 1.6 1.8 1.3 0.1 4.7
2013-14 Connecticut 40 400 57.5 41.8 76.8 3.4 4.9 2.7 0.2 10.0
2014-15 Connecticut 39 485 58.7 49.6 84.3 2.9 4.9 2.6 0.1 12.4
2015-16 Connecticut 37 465 55.7 43.1 89.4 2.5 5.5 2.6 0.2 12.6
Career Connecticut 155 1532 55.0 42.0 81.8 2.6 4.3 2.3 0.2 9.9

Professional career

Jefferson, a Texas native got drafted by the San Antonio Stars which is close to home. Jefferson had a game-winning putback just before the overtime buzzer as part of her career-high 31 points to help San Antonio beat the Indiana Fever 87-85 on July 1, 2016.

In September 2016, Jefferson was featured in the Adidas "Sport Needs Creators" ad[12] alongside athletes including Von Miller of the Denver Broncos, Paul Pogba of Manchester United, and James Harden of the Houston Rockets.

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. ↑ Jacobs, Jeff (April 6, 2016). "Senior Sweep: Savor The Huskies' Big Moment". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, CT. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  10. ↑ "NCAA Statistics". web1.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2016-04-15.
  11. ↑ "4 Moriah Jefferson". Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  12. ↑ adidas (2016-09-06), Sport Needs Creators - adidas, retrieved 2016-10-09
  13. ↑ "Five Women's Hoops Players Garner AP All-American Recognition". UConnHuskies.com. April 1, 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  14. ↑ "Jefferson Wins 2016 Nancy Lieberman Award". www.uconnhuskies.com. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  15. ↑ "Jefferson Wins Dawn Staley Award". www.uconnhuskies.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
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