UConn’s Paige Bueckers passes icon Diana Taurasi on scoring list

Paige Bueckers surpassed a UConn women’s hoops icon during the Huskies’ 91-49 win over Seton Hall on Wednesday night.

The Huskies guard moved ahead of Diana Taurasi on the school’s all-time scoring list after she put up 23 points in the win over the Pirates. 

Bueckers, now alone in ninth all-time scoring list in the women’s program’s history with 2,158 career points, could still find herself moving further up that list before her college career comes to an end.

She only needs 21 points to move past both Kerry Bascom (2,177) and Nykesha Sales and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (2,178).

Bueckers had just become the fastest player to reach 2,000 points in UConn basketball history last month, beating Maya Moore’s record of 108 games by six fewer contests. 

“She draws a lot of attention to herself [on the court], which is good, and obviously she could go out there and try to get 25 shots every night if she wanted it to be that way, but she doesn’t,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said about Bueckers after Wednesday’s win. “I just want to make sure she takes advantage all the opportunities that she has. Every time she does force the action. Every time she is coming down the floor, she’s one of the few players out there that you see her head is always up. She sees everything that’s going on. The more aggressive she is the better our team is and that doesn’t always represent how many points you scored and how many shots you took. 

“I thought she played a great game over the weekend and she played really well today. … We count on her for a lot of things. I think the best thing she does is she plays defense and she rebounds. A lot of big scorers they just kind of focus on one thing.” 

Bueckers did give UConn fans a bit of a scare Wednesday when she hobbled off the court to end the first half. 

But she did return to finish out the game.

“I’m alright, I’m alright,” she told SNY after the win.