Wings’ Paige Bueckers just did something no NBA or WNBA player has done in 57 years originally appeared on The Sporting News
Amid swirling debate over her viability as the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year, Paige Bueckers just did all she could to end the conversation for 2025.
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Even though her Dallas Wings were eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday night, Bueckers nearly defeated the host Los Angeles Sparks by herself. The star point guard tied a WNBA rookie record by scoring 44 points — the most by any player in The W this season — as the Wings lost, 81-80, on a Kelsey Plum game-winner as time expired.
MORE: Why the WNBA could fine Kelsey Plum despite Sparks star’s heroics
Bueckers though left no doubt as to her ascendancy into the league’s elite, even before her first WNBA season is over and even though she is starring for a struggling team in Dallas. With her accomplishment on Wednesday, she just did something no WNBA or NBA player has done in nearly six decades.
Back on March 29, Bueckers scored 40 points for the UConn Huskies in a win over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament; not even five months, she dropped 44 on the Sparks, a team that is only a half-game out of the WNBA’s final playoff spot.
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This made Bueckers the first player since 1968 to score 40 or more points in an NCAA Tournament game as well as a NBA/WNBA game in the same calendar year. Just two other players have accomplished this feat, and both are basketball legends: Oscar Robertson in 1960, and Elvin Hayes in 1968.
With her career night on Wednesday, Bueckers bumped up her scoring average to 19.7 points per game — tops among rookies, and fifth among all WNBA players. Despite the lack of team success, Bueckers has enhanced her status as the Rookie of the Year favorite, and she is trending toward All-WNBA first team honors at season’s end, too.
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