WGL Sports Performer of the Day (2/25/17)

Washington Huskies Guard Kelsey Plum (57 points, 8 rebounds; set the NCAA Division I women’s all-time scoring record)

Kelsey Plum has had quite the season and career at Washington. The 22-year-old senior guard entered play on Saturday averaging a nation-best 30.9 points per game with an eye on the NCAA Division I women’s all-time career scoring record. Going into yesterday’s game, Plum was 53 points behind Jackie Stiles (3,393 points) for that #1 spot. For the 11th ranked Huskies, their showdown with Utah was the last game of the regular season, so Plum was not expected to break the record until next week during the PAC-12 conference tournament. This game against Utah was just supposed to be a coronation for the Washington seniors and an opportunity to improve upon seeding for next week’s competition. Plum had other ideas.

In the first half, Plum scored 22 points, still leaving her 31 shy of Stiles’ record, but a 16-point outburst in the third quarter gave Plum a real shot at accelerating the history making moment and breaking the record in her final game on her home floor. She did just that, scoring 19 in the fourth quarter and finishing with a school and PAC-12 record of 57 points, just three shy of the NCAA record for most points in a single game. Still, Plum did enough to move into #1 on the career list with 3,397 points. She shot 19 for 28 from the field, making 6 of 11 shots from three-point range and 13 for 16 from the line while also pulling down 8 rebounds. Now with her individual achievement complete, Plum and the Huskies turn toward March with an eye on making a deep tournament run. They face long odds to cutting down the nets in Dallas, but then again, nobody expected a 5’8” guard from Poway, California to become the NCAA’s all-time scoring leader either. Anything is possible once March Madness gets underway, but at any rate, this will be an exciting team to watch in order to catch a glimpse of Plum’s greatness while we still can.