Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers set a WNBA rookie record by scoring 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks on Wednesday.
Ultimately, her team fell 81-80, but it certainly wasn’t for a lack of effort on Bueckers part. The talented UConn alum shot 17 for 21 from the field, becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 40 or more points while shooting at least 80% from the field.
Bueckers was 6 for 6 from the free throw line, and 4 for 4 from beyond the 3-point line. “It’s a lot of repetition in practice,” Bueckers said. “And learning and growing, watching film of how you can get to your spots, how you can attack, how you can use your teammates screening for you, attacking in transition and when teams switch on screens. Just reading the possession.”
The 23 year old broke Candace Parker’s previous rookie record of 40 points which had stood for the past 17 years.
“I mean, I’m as much a fan as anybody else,” Dallas coach Chris Koclanes said of Bueckers. “She takes what the defense is giving her all over the floor. She just plays at her own pace. You can’t speed her up. It’s really impressive for a rookie in this league to be able to maintain her own speed and tempo. I think that helps her to be able to read the defense.”
With the loss, Dallas is officially eliminated from postseason contention with the club falling to 9-27 on the season. Only Chicago (8-26) and Connecticut (7-27) have worse records than the Wings this season.
Nevertheless, Bueckers has turned heads in her rookie campaign averaging 19.7pts/4.1reb/5.3ast/1.7stl per game, and is a virtual lock to be named the league’s rookie of the year. Dallas is next in action Friday night against the Seattle Storm in a 7:30pm ET showdown.
Photo: John Mac. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.