UNCASVILLE – For the primary time in over 600 days, Morgan Cheli placed on her No. 23 UConn girls’s basketball uniform and performed the game she loves most.
Cheli made her return to the courtroom Monday night in UConn girls’s basketball’s exhibition win over Syracuse at Mohegan Solar Area. Whereas the preseason sport technically would not rely, it was Cheli’s first time again after lacking the final season and a half attributable to an ankle harm.
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The redshirt sophomore, who begins her third tutorial 12 months in Storrs this fall, performed 17 minutes in opposition to the Orange and completed with one rebound and one help.
“She’s carried out loads of actually nice stuff, however not having performed in a sport in a 12 months and a half might be a bit nerve-wracking for her,” Geno Auriemma mentioned after the sport.
Cheli’s final sport for UConn was Feb. 9, 2025. She performed 23 minutes in a win at Windfall, recording two factors, 4 rebounds and one help. Then a freshman, Cheli was certainly one of UConn’s go-to choices off the bench, showing in 24 video games and averaging 13.3 minutes per contest.
Nonetheless, nagging ankle ache was starting to develop into an excessive amount of to bear and finally resulted in a stress fracture.
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She underwent surgical procedure ten days later. Initially, the plan was for her to return to the courtroom the next season, however her restoration took longer than anticipated, and she or he missed the whole 2025-26 season. Cheli did not observe till late March 2026 – when the Huskies have been competing within the Candy 16 and Elite Eight.
In June, when talking with the media about her return to exercises, Cheli beamed. She was so completely satisfied to be again and wholesome.
“I simply know that day by day I’m on the courtroom is a step in the correct route,” she mentioned in June in the course of the Huskies’ summer season exercises. “I really feel like I’m lastly getting again to myself, to the place I may help the staff. It’s thrilling. That is what I’ve been working for a very long time.”
Auriemma has been impressed with Cheli in observe. Regardless that she’s missed a lot time – she sat out UConn’s open observe in September for unspecified causes – she brings one thing distinctive to the Huskies’ lineup due to her prolonged 6-foot-2 body.
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Throughout Monday’s exhibition, Cheli performed three minutes or extra in every quarter, together with 5 in each the third and fourth. After catching a cross from Jovana Popovic on the skin, Cheli bounced the ball to help Jana El Alfy within the put up for a layup halfway by the second quarter. And regardless of getting known as for 2 fouls in two minutes within the fourth, the guard grabbed her lone rebound of the day with 22 seconds remaining off a miss from Gandy Malou-Mamel.
“She’s seemed actually good in observe. She simply hasn’t been on the market sufficient,” mentioned Auriemma. “… I believe having Morgan play effectively takes loads of strain off of Sarah (Sturdy), you realize, as a result of she’s received the correct dimension and the correct ball-handling abilities that may get us out of bother, and the correct passing abilities. So now it is only a matter of discovering that consolation stage, and that is simply going to take time.”
When the Huskies open the 2026-27 season on Nov. 2, internet hosting Cornell, it will likely be Cheli’s first sport in 631 days.
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This text initially printed at Morgan Cheli returns to UConn after lacking final season. What which means for Huskies..