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Lou Lopez Sénéchal

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Lou Lopez Sénéchal
No. 8 – Hozono Global Jairis
PositionGuard / forward
LeagueLiga Femenina de Baloncesto
Personal information
Born (1998-05-12) May 12, 1998 (age 26)
Guadalajara, Mexico
NationalityMexican / French[1]
Listed height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Listed weight70 kg (155 lb)
Career information
High schoolNorth Atlantic Basketball Academy
(Dublin, Ireland)
College
WNBA draft2023: 1st round, 5th overall pick
Selected by the Dallas Wings
Playing career2023–present
Career history
2023–presentDallas Wings
2023BK Brno
2024–presentHozono Global Jairis
Career highlights and awards
  • MAAC Player of the Year (2022)
  • 3× First-team All-MAAC (2020–2022)
  • First-team All-Big East (2023)
  • MAAC Rookie of the Year (2019)
  • MAAC All-Rookie Team (2019)
  • MAAC tournament MVP (2022)
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Lou Lopez Sénéchal (born May 12, 1998[2]) is a Mexican-French professional basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and Hozono Global Jairis of the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto. She played her collegiate basketball for the UConn Huskies of the Big East Conference.[3] She previously played for the Fairfield Stags and was named MAAC Player of the Year as a senior.[4] She was selected 5th overall in the 2023 WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings.

Early life

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Lopez Sénéchal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Her father Carlos Lopez is Mexican and her mother Sophie Sénéchal is French.[5] Her parents separated when she was five. She moved to Grenoble, France with her mother while her father remained in Mexico.[6] She had grown up playing soccer but she tried basketball for the first time at the age of eight. With her soccer experience she had no problem with her legs, but using her hands to dribble was new. But this was the first time she truly felt at home while in France, because the sport was new to everyone in the class so she no longer "felt like an outsider. On the basketball court, she felt like an equal."[7]

She attended high school in France but in 2017–18, she played basketball at the North Atlantic Basketball Academy in Ireland. While she was playing in Ireland, she had a chance conversation with a friend. Her friend remarked "I'm going to Canada to play college basketball". Until that conversation, she had never considered the possibility of playing in the Americas, but after the conversation it was all she could think about.[7]

Along with her stepfather, she communicated with schools throughout the US. With help from her stepdad, they reached out to two hundred and eighty schools in both Division I and Division II. The only schools they didn't consider were those ranked in the top twenty-five, which at the time seemed too much of a stretch.[7]

They received some responses, so the family scheduled a trip to the States that offered for scholarships. The schools included UMass Lowell, Tulsa, Akron, Duquesne and Fairfield. The head coach at Fairfield, Joe Frager, planned a 45-minute workout to see what she could do. After only 10 minutes he indicated that the workout was over. She asked him what she had done wrong, he responded that she had done everything right. He had seen plenty of game film but wanted to see her in action to assess her personal attributes. He concluded she was open to being coached. Lopez Sénéchal accepted the offer and enrolled at Fairfield.[8][9][10]

College career

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Fairfield

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Lopez Sénéchal played for four years and graduated from Fairfield University before transferring to UConn.[3] She is 6-foot-1in tall and plays wing.[3]

In her freshman year, she sat for an interview with the Fairfield Mirror, the student newspaper at the school. She discussed the challenges of adapting to college in the United States after living in France most of her life. She played basketball in France and Ireland, and noted that her teammates and friends were typically 25 years old or older, while she was now playing with teammates closer to her age.[11]

By her senior year she was being described as "arguably the conference's best offensive player". That description followed a 26 point performance against Quinnipiac, leading to "a convincing 72-60 win"  by Fairfield over Quinnipiac on their home floor.[12] At the time, Quinnipiac was the five-time regular-season champion of the MAAC.[13]

At Fairfield, she led the team to an appearance in the NCAA tournament.[14] Before the season started, the head coach of Fairfield, Joe Frager, had announced his retirement as of the end of the season. The team, led by Lopez Sénéchal, helped extend that retirement date as long as possible, winning their first conference title since 1998. That automatically qualified them for an NCAA tournament bid, their first such bid since 2001. They were seated 15th and faced second seed Texas, ranked seventh in the country. They arrived in Austin two days before the game and met for a team dinner, with players pointing out that it was the first such team dinner in a restaurant for two years due to COVID restrictions.[15]

In the first quarter of the game against Texas, the elbow of Texas's Lauren Ebo connected with Lopez Sénéchal's face.[16] That sent Ebo to the foul line with the score 12–8 in favor of Texas. It also sent Lopez Sénéchal to the locker room where she received two stitches to close the cut. When asked about the incident after the game, "I think I got elbowed," she said. "I got two stitches, and when I came back, I was all good."[17] She did not play the remainder of the first half. She returned in the second half, and hit a three pointer nine seconds into the second half.[18] Texas had outscored Fairfield by four points while Sénéchal was in the game in the first quarter, but Fairfield outscored Texas by three points in the second half, so Texas only outscored Fairfield by one point when Lopez Sénéchal was on the floor. Lopez Sénéchal hit her only two three-point attempts, scored on five of her six free throw attempts on her way to recording 17 points for the game.[18]

UConn

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When Morgan Valley saw Lopez Sénéchal's name in the NCAA transfer portal, she had already heard the name "dozens of times". Fairfield is only an hour and 1/2 drive from the UConn campus, and Valley had discussions with a coach of a competing team about the challenges of stopping Lopez Sénéchal. When Valley saw the name in the portal, she immediately began doing some research viewing game films and reaching out to the Fairfield head coach, Joe Frager, to find out whether she would be a fit at UConn. Frager, who has known UConn coach Geno Auriemma for decades, "understood the demands of the Huskies program" and responded that she would be "more than fine at UConn". Valley shared the video clips with Auriemma and the rest of the UConn staff which led to zoom meetings with Lopez Sénéchal while the UConn coaches were in Minneapolis for the Final Four.[19]

At Fairfield, virtually all the scoring plays were run through her. The initial expectations were that Lopez Sénéchal would play more of a reserve role, and it was important that she feel comfortable with this change. Her goals were to get a shot at playing pro, and she felt that even a reduced role at UConn would provide the visibility and competition that would help earn a spot on a WNBA roster. While Auriemma originally expected her to get some minutes, he upgraded his opinion after a few days of practice. "After the first five days, I pretty much said, 'Someone who was a starter isn't going to start this year,'" Auriemma said. "That's how impressive she was."[20][21]

Career statistics

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Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader

WNBA

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Regular season

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Stats current through end of 2024 season

WNBA regular season statistics[22]
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2023 Did not play (injury)
2024 Dallas 27 0 4.6 .294 .200 .500 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.9
Career 1 year, 1 team 27 0 4.6 .294 .200 .500 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.9

College

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NCAA statistics[23][24]
Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
2018–19 Fairfield 22 22 30.5 .414 .328 .857 4.7 1.8 1.2 0.5 2.0 11.8
2019–20 Fairfield 30 30 34.3 .431 .392 .856 5.7 1.6 1.0 0.8 2.3 15.5
2020–21 Fairfield 16 16 33.4 .424 .407 .830 3.4 1.6 0.9 0.5 2.4 16.9
2021–22 Fairfield 31 31 34.0 .449 .409 .800 4.6 1.1 1.0 0.4 1.9 19.5
2022–23 UConn 37 37 31.5 .476 .440 .854 3.1 1.6 0.5 0.3 2.0 15.5
Career 136 136 32.8 .444 .405 .837 4.3 1.5 0.9 0.5 2.1 16.0

Awards and honors

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  • MAAC Tournament MVP (2022)[25]
  • MAAC Player of the Year (2022)[26]
  • MAAC Rookie of the Year(2019)[27]
  • MAAC All-Academic Team (2020, 2021, 2022)[27]
  • First Team All-BIG EAST (2023)[28]
  • Big East All-Tournament team (2023)[29]

References

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  1. ^ Anthony, Mike (April 14, 2022). "Fairfield basketball standout Lou Lopez Senechal is seeking new challenge. Could she land at UConn?". CT Insider. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2023. She is a dual citizen of Mexico and France...
  2. ^ "WNBA Draft '23 Prospect Profile: Lou Lopez Sénéchal". WNBA. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c "'There's just something special about her': Lou Lopez Sénéchal showed why she belongs on the big stage in UConn's win over Tennessee". Hartford Courant. January 27, 2023. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  4. ^ "Geno Auriemma: Lou Lopez Senechal has been 'more important' to UConn than anyone else has to her team". sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  5. ^ Anthony, Mike (April 14, 2022). "Fairfield basketball standout Lou Lopez Senechal is seeking new challenge. Could she land at UConn?". CT Insider. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  6. ^ Fuller, Jim (February 22, 2020). "Lopez-Senechal steals the show as Fairfield rolls past Quinnipiac". New Haven Register. Retrieved February 19, 2023. Born in Mexico before moving to France at age 5,...
  7. ^ a b c "'I can't believe that happened': The WNBA draft's most unbelievable story". ESPN.com. April 7, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
  8. ^ Anthony, Mike (April 28, 2022). "'LouConn!': An in-depth look at how the newest UConn women's basketball transfer wound up in Storrs". CT Insider. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  9. ^ "Lou Lopez Sénéchal - Women's Basketball". University of Connecticut Athletics. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  10. ^ Jennings, Chantel. "Lou Lopez Sénéchal wanted any role with UConn, instead she got a vital one". The Athletic. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  11. ^ Getz, Patrick. "» Sit-Down With First-Year Lou Lopez-Senechal". Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  12. ^ Milette, Riley; III, Toyloy Brown (December 21, 2021). "MAAC scoring leader Lou Lopez-Senechal leads Fairfield with a 26-point performance to give Quinnipiac women's basketball its first conference loss". The Quinnipiac Chronicle. Retrieved February 23, 2023. In Fairfield's corner was arguably the conference's best offensive player in senior forward Lou Lopez-Senechal who leads the MAAC in scoring with 18.2 points per game.
  13. ^ Fuller, Jim (February 22, 2020). "Lopez-Senechal steals the show as Fairfield rolls past Quinnipiac". New Haven Register. Retrieved February 23, 2023. lead her Fairfield team to a convincing 72-60 win over five-time defending MAAC regular-season champion Quinnipiac on Saturday at Alumni Hall.
  14. ^ Inquirer, Carl Adamec / Journal. "Lopez Sénéchal in good place at UConn". Journal Inquirer. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  15. ^ Doyle, Paul (March 17, 2022). "Fairfield ready for Texas challenge in Women's NCAA Tournament: 'Super excited'". CT Insider. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  16. ^ Inquirer, Carl Adamec / Journal. "UConn women, Lopez Sénéchal have eyes on No. 3 Texas". Journal Inquirer. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  17. ^ Rosner, Mark (March 19, 2022). "Fairfield women's basketball can't keep up with Texas in NCAA tournament loss". CT Insider. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Fairfield vs. Texas - Women's College Basketball Play-By-Play - March 18, 2022". ESPN. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  19. ^ Anthony, Mike (April 14, 2022). "Fairfield basketball standout Lou Lopez Senechal is seeking new challenge. Could she land at UConn?". CT Insider. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  20. ^ Jennings, Chantel. "Lou Lopez Sénéchal wanted any role with UConn, instead she got a vital one". The Athletic. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  21. ^ Inquirer, Carl Adamec / Journal. "Huskies glad Sénéchal touched down in Storrs". Journal Inquirer. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
  22. ^ "Lou Lopez Sénéchal WNBA Stats". Basketball Reference.
  23. ^ "Fairfield University Stags". Fairfield Stags. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  24. ^ "Lou Lopez Sénéchal College Stats". Sports Reference.
  25. ^ "Fairfield Wins 2022 Hercules Tires MAAC Women's Basketball Championship". maacsports.com. March 12, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  26. ^ "Lopez-Senechal Named MAAC Player of the Year; Stags Win Three Major Awards". Fairfield University Athletics. March 9, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Lou Lopez-Senechal - Women's Basketball". Fairfield University Athletics. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  28. ^ "Maddy Siegrist Named BIG EAST Player of the Year". www.bigeast.com. March 2, 2023. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  29. ^ Inquirer, Carl Adamec / Journal. "UConn notebook: Sweet repeat for Lopez Sénéchal". Journal Inquirer. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
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