Huskies' Kelsey Plum smashes D-I women's scoring record

Huskies’ Kelsey Plum smashes D-I women’s scoring record

SEATTLE, WA - DECEMBER 11: Washington's Kelsey Plum addressed the media after she became the PAC-12 All-Time leading scorer when she scored 44 Points against Boise State. Washington won 92-66 over Boise State on December 11, 2016, at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle, WA. (Photo by Jesse Beals/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

Kelsey Plum made history on Saturday night, scoring 57 points to take sole possession of the NCAA Div. 1 women’s scoring record.

No one expected No. 11 Washington Huskies’ Kelsey Plum to break the NCAA Division I women’s scoring record tonight. Plum came into the game against Utah 54 points shy of Jackie Stiles’ record; while she has been averaging 31.6 points per game all season, 54 points was a big deficit to overcome in one game.

So she scored 57 points to seal the deal.

This was a night where all the pieces came together for Plum, whose teammates and coaches got the ball moving to her throughout the game so that she could sink the record at home on senior night. “I knew my teammates wanted me to be super-aggressive,” Plum said. “They just kept feeding me the ball and Coach kept calling my number. I wasn’t sure exactly points-wise, but I knew it was getting closer and closer.” Plum’s teammates were counting down the points for her, moving the ball in her direction at every opportunity to help her hit the magic number.

Plum started the record setting quest shooting 7-11 in field goals in the first half with 22 points. Plum sank shots from all over the floor, going 6 for 11 from the arc. She had 38 points by the end of the third quarter, and with minutes to go in the fourth quarter she hit the tying shot and then scored two more points for good measure for a total of 57 points on the night, giving her a total of 3,397 career points all time.

Not only is she the highest scoring women’s basketball player of all time, but among Division I men and women Plum is second only to LSU’s Pete Maravich with his 3,667 career points.

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This wasn’t the only big moment of the night. Plum’s career high 57 points in a single came beat Jackie Stiles’ 56 points, and Plum was only three points away from the NCAA single game scoring record of 60 points scored in a game.

Washington came away with an 84-77 win over Utah.