A tale of two titles for Kiah Stokes

This one was better. A lot better.

'Going back-to-back is nice, but I felt like I played so much more of a role this year,” said Marion native Kiah Stokes, whose Connecticut Huskies won their second straight NCAA women's basketball championship Tuesday.

The Huskies wrapped up a 40-0 season by dismantling Notre Dame, 79-58.

A junior from Linn-Mar - where she was Miss Iowa Basketball 2011 and the Gazette Female Athlete of the Year - Stokes was a member of UConn's 2013 championship team.

This year, though, she was a contributor. A big one.

Generally the first player off the bench, the 6-foot-3 post averaged 4.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. She was third on the team in boards and blocks.

Surely a season deserving of praise, right?

Stokes laughed.

'Coach (Geno Auriemma) isn't one to give you credit for every little step you take,” she said. 'It's more like, ‘It's about time.' ”

Stokes met with Auriemma about a month ago, before the stretch run.

'It helped me mentally,” she said. 'It made me realize how much the team really needed me.”

These are, in the words of Stokes, 'wild times” in Storrs. The men's basketball team won the title Monday, then the women followed the next day.

'I guess they were flipping cars and stuff when the men won. It wasn't to that extreme (Tuesday),” she said.

'But you can't walk to class without somebody coming up and asking for your picture or your autograph.”

The next couple weeks, Stokes plans to catch up on her studies, relax and soak in the glory. Then, it's back to work.

She'll be a senior next year. She wants to make the step from player, to contributor, to starter.

Stephanie Dolson, the starter this year, was a senior, and Stokes wants that spot.

'If I work hard, my role will definitely be expanded,” she said. 'I need to come back ready and hungry.”

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