Washington basketball’s Kelsey Plum breaks NCAA women’s scoring record

Washington basketball’s Kelsey Plum broke the women’s NCAA all-time career scoring record with a career-best 57-points in front of her home crowd on Saturday. She came into the game 54 points behind former leader Jackie Stiles, and she shot 19-of-28 from the field and 6-of-11 from deep to surpass the 16-year-old record with 3,397 career points.

The senior was relieved it’s all behind her now.

“In the most respectful way possible, I’m glad it’s over,” Plum said, according to the Seattle Times. “It was getting to a point where it was starting to be disheartening in a way because people expect so much.”

Plum’s efforts led No. 11 Washington to its 27th victory of the year over Utah State to end the regular season.

“I understand,” she said, according to the Seattle Times. “I’m grateful for it. We’re going to talk about it and give it credit. But now that it’s behind us, I’m grateful for that too.”

Plum’s 30.9 points per game this season is nearly six points more than the next best, and she hasn’t scored fewer than 21 in a game all season.

The 5’8 guard can score with a mixture of moves off the dribble, from the three-point arc, and can rack up points from the foul line. She’s incredibly efficient too, shooting 53 percent from the field, and she is the league’s 13th-best three-point shooter at 44 percent. She also shoots 89 percent from the line.

Plum dishes five assists per game to 2.6 turnovers, which given her high usage is impressive.

She’ll have at least a few more games to add to her record between the upcoming Pac-12 tournament and then the NCAA tournament. She may catch the women’s single-season scoring record by just 84 points, and if her team can make a run in March, the all-time NCAA career scoring record set by Pete Maravich, as well. She needs 270 points to surpass him.

CBS currently projects Plum as the No. 2 overall pick in April’s WNBA draft.