\u201cWhenever Stewie\u2019s playing in a big game, I expect her to play great and that hasn\u2019t changed one iota,\u201d Auriemma said Tuesday at Big East media day. \u201cAnd I hope they get a really good coach and I hope they put a really good team around her because I think she\u2019s one of the great things in this city, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
This past season presented challenges for everyone within the Liberty organization.<\/p>\n
Despite the team returning its core, the absences of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (offseason knee surgery) and Kayla Thornton (expansion draft) loomed large.<\/p>\n
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The Liberty got off to a franchise record 9-0 start to their title defense, but injuries clouded their momentum and they ultimately got bounced in the first round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Stewart, from an individual standpoint, had a down season by her standards, too.<\/p>\n
She led the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game, but that was her lowest scoring mark since her 2016 rookie campaign.<\/p>\n
![\"UConn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/32ea34315777766ba2c97bdbbf6db030.jpeg\"\/)
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UConn coach Geno Auriemma Getty Images<\/p>\n
She also shot a career-low 24.1 percent from deep \u2014 a five percent drop from 2024 \u2014 and attempted the fewest 3-pointers per game to date.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got to make a shot once in a while. That sucker missed more jump shots this year than I saw her miss in the last seven years,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cAnd sometimes that happens. Sometimes you get a baseball player that\u2019s hit .300 every year in their career and then they got two months and they hit .210 and you go, \u2018What the hell happened?\u2019 It happens. So it\u2019s just part of the game, man.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite the slump, Stewart was the Liberty\u2019s steadiest, most impactful player. She was second in rebounds (6.5 per game) and third in assists (3.5.)<\/p>\n
![\"Breanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0ded9db0b6406aee3d975730310839ea.jpeg\"\/)
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Breanna Stewart (right) celebrates while Alyssa Thomas looks on during the Liberty\u2019s Game 3 road loss to the
Mercury in the first round of the WNBA playoffs on Sept. 19, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Stewart delivered for the Liberty time and time again, including in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
In a winner-take-all Game 3 against Phoenix, Stewart poured in a team-high 30 points, grabbed nine rebounds and recorded two steals and two blocks all while playing with a bum knee. Unfortunately, though, it wasn\u2019t enough as the Liberty were dismissed earlier than expected.<\/p>\n
Auriemma knows better than anyone how difficult it is to win back-to-back titles. He said some of the Liberty\u2019s shortcomings were out of their control.<\/p>\n
![\"Breanna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/a58d43f414ea8581fdd1b6e988a82b9d.jpeg\"\/)
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Breanna Stewart handles the ball during the Liberty\u2019s Game 3 road loss to the Mercury on Sept. 19, 2025. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about people putting this huge emphasis on repeat, you have the same core, so repeating should be easy. It\u2019s not,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cIt\u2019s not because of how many things have to break right. So maybe if that roster had stayed injury-free the whole time, maybe it would have happened. But if Minnesota had stayed injury-free, maybe nobody would have beat them. So I think I got by every year you need to put yourself in the mix to where you have a chance and as long as you\u2019re in the final four in the WNBA, you\u2019ve put yourself where you have a chance. And that\u2019s all anybody can expect really.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Auriemma lauded Stewart\u2019s heroics in the playoffs, despite having hurt her right knee in Game 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, I was shocked at how poorly Stewie played in the [2024 WNBA Finals] \u2026 because that\u2019s the first time in her career I\u2019ve ever seen her have a bad game in a game of that magnitude,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cSo this year, even though she was hurt and came back after that in the [first round]. \u2026 They weren\u2019t sure she was going to play \u2026 and then she had like 30 or whatever. That\u2019s really who she is. But to expect that every year, it\u2019s still about the quality of talent, the amount of talent you have on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past WNBA season may have been one of Breanna Stewart\u2019s rockiest campaigns yet between her injuries, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[15447,133472,435,37762,51379,6429,99,13969,434,70908],"class_list":{"0":"post-243046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-alyssa-thomas","9":"tag-auriemma","10":"tag-breanna-stewart","11":"tag-geno-auriemma","12":"tag-kayla-thornton","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-the-liberty","16":"tag-wnba","17":"tag-wnba-playoffs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}