Although it took a while to process, Geno Auriemma knew he had found her.

On a scouting trip in the summer of 2013, the legendary University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach entered a state of panic when he realized a player he had been scribbling notes on would be entering Grade 12 — not Grade 11 — that fall.

The player, who excelled at both guard positions, was “advanced” in Auriemma’s mind, someone who could make an immediate impact at UConn as a freshman in 2014-15.

Kia Nurse, the curly-haired, wide-grinning superstar of a Hamilton high school team, was her name — and Auriemma almost let her slip away.

“I just kind of filed her away as someone who would be really good (to pursue) in the future,” Auriemma said. “Then, later on, someone said, ‘Hey, how come you’re not recruiting this kid Kia Nurse?’ ”

Auriemma, who on Feb. 3 became the quickest women’s basketball coach to reach 900 NCAA wins, acted swiftly. He scheduled additional scouting trips, visited St. Thomas More High and made sure he didn’t miss Nurse’s national team appearances.

Fast-forward to the present and Nurse, who turns 19 on Feb. 22, is averaging 25 minutes a night as a starter on Auriemma’s 24-1, No. 2-ranked Huskies squad. Nurse passed on offers to attend a handful of other Division I schools, including Indiana and Penn State.

“I’ve always had a dream of becoming an Olympian and I knew that would require me to become the best possible basketball player I could,” Nurse said of choosing UConn. “Here, you’re playing with and against the best players in the country, playing for and against the best coaches in the country, so I knew I would be pushed to my absolute limits.”

After her first 25 NCAA games, Nurse is averaging 11.5 points per game, while nailing 52% of her shots from the field, as well as 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists. UConn’s lone Canadian has been named conference rookie of the week twice already.

The 6-foot combo guard has had a “phenomenal impact” on UConn’s success so far, Auriemma said, adding, “There isn’t a restriction on her role. It can be whatever she wants it to be. I think going forward, it’s going to grow.”

While you can’t discount Nurse’s success at the college level, her influence on Canada’s national team — even as a teenager — has perhaps been more striking.

Team Canada’s head coach, Lisa Thomaidis, goes as far as calling Nurse “The One,” a player around whom to build a program.

Superficially, if we’re talking strictly players penciled in as the leaders of the new wave, Nurse is the national-team equivalent to Andrew Wiggins.

“When we selected her at such a young age, there were a lot of naysayers,” Thomaidis said of taking a 17-year-old Nurse to the 2013 FIBA Americas.

“(This was) our reasoning: Listen, she’s going to be here at some point, whether it’s this year, next year or the year after. She’s the one. The sooner we can get her into our program and get her accustomed to our style of play, what we’re trying to teach and the direction that we’re trying to go in, the better off the team and she will be.”

At the FIBA Americas, Nurse averaged 10 points, 2.5 assists and two rebounds in six games. Despite her age, she was a top performer on a Canadian team that lost to Cuba in the final.

Nurse continued to solidify herself as the future of women’s basketball in this country last fall, starting in every world championship game en route to a fifth-place finish.

The Pan Am Games, which go in July in Toronto, are the next tournament on the international schedule. Then, in August, Edmonton hosts a qualifier for the 2016 Olympics.

Expect Nurse to be front and centre during both events.

“There’s certainly lots of things for her to improve upon,” Thomaidis said, “but the foundation is certainly there — and one we haven’t seen in someone at that age in quite a long time.”

THAT ‘TWIN’ CONNECTION

Darnell Nurse used to infuriate his little sister Kia.

The Nurse siblings would often escape their Hamilton home to avoid doing the dishes after dinner, finding rivalry around the family basketball net. They’d battle one-on-one or see who had the hot hand by partaking in a shooting game called 21.

While Darnell preferred hockey, basketball was a far more convenient way to play with his younger sister by a year.

“She can’t really skate. I mean, she thinks she can skate,” Darnell said, chuckling at his quip. “We kind of stuck to the basketball court. I think I have the shooting gene, which all of a sudden she got.

“But she’s always beat me in one-on-one. I hate to admit it.”

Added Kia: “He was a streak shooter. If he hit the first shot, he’d hit about 12 in a row and beat me.”

Nowadays, Darnell, who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is on his way to being a franchise defenceman in the NHL with the Edmonton Oilers, while Kia, who lives in Storrs, Conn., is approaching basketball stardom.

Geographically, things have certainly changed. But the relationship forged between the self-proclaimed “best friends” who are “basically twins” hasn’t wavered.

Darnell steals his parents’ password to an ESPN mobile app that allows him to watch Kia in action, which aren’t broadcast in Canada, whenever he gets a free minute.

“When you have a competitor like that in your family, it’s a lot of fun to sit back and watch,” he said. “For me, I’m just amazed and really proud of how she’s been able to handle herself so far.”

The respect is mutual.

“Every time we talk, he always turns it to me, saying things like, ‘I’m so proud of you,’ ” Kia said. “He’s one of those kids that’s so humble but, at the same time, works his butt off. I couldn’t be more proud to have him as a brother and I couldn’t be luckier to have him as a brother.”​

SPORTING FAMILY TREE

The Nurse family tree is chock-full of elite athletes