UPDATE (Feb. 20): Washington’s Kelsey Plum scored 35 points in Sunday’s 87-74 win over USC, passing Brittney Griner for second on the NCAA’s all-time scoring list. Her 3,315 points is now just 78 points shy of Stiles’ record 3,393 points. The Huskies have two more regular season games followed by the PAC-12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament.
(Original Story from Jan. 25, 2017)
For 16 years, Missouri State’s Jackie Stiles has been atop the women’s college basketball world. Every so often a player comes along to threaten her coveted career scoring record but, each time, Stiles hung onto the honor.
“It was so special when I look back, and nobody will ever take those memories from me,” said Stiles, who led the Lady Bears to a Final Four and is now an assistant coach for the team. “I’ll be happy if someone actually breaks the record because I know how much work they had to put in.”
Brittney Griner, Maya Moore and Elena Della Donne have all threatened the hallowed mark, with Griner coming within 110 points. All three names are basketball royalty, but none have closed the deal.
Stiles’ record of 3,393 points set from 1998-01 is once again in jeopardy as University of Washington senior Kelsey Plum sits just 323 points away from tying the mark. With 10 regular season games to go—plus the PAC-12 Tournament and NCAA Tournament—and scoring 31 points per game, Plum projects to break the record in the Huskies’ first game of the PAC-12 Tournament.
.@UW_WBB‘s Kelsey Plum became the first Pac-12 player to reach 3K career points. #UWDataPoints
2016-17 Production: https://t.co/Mf681rXk5O pic.twitter.com/uyBPYBIBEs
— Washington Athletics (@UWAthletics) January 14, 2017
Despite that, Stiles is supporting Plum’s pursuit.
“It’s a really good thing,” said Stiles, a former WNBA Rookie of the Year. “I know it brings a lot of attention to women’s basketball, and my mission now is to grow the game in any way I can. Records are meant to be broken and I know Kelsey Plum is a very hard worker and if she ends up breaking it she’s very well deserved of breaking it.”
And if that wasn’t enough, there’s another current player chasing both Stiles and Plum. Ohio State junior Kelsey Mitchell became the fastest player ever to reach 2,000 points. At her current scoring average she stands to eclipse both Stiles and Plum in 2018.
In many ways, Stiles and Plum are a lot alike. Both stand 5’8” tall and weigh around 140 pounds, both are “gym rats”, and they both wear/wore the #10 jersey.
no one deserves it more than you ???? so proud of you bum @Kelseyplum10 ???? pic.twitter.com/Pr3vNNRUzK
— #️⃣3️⃣ (@HensonMai_Loni) January 14, 2017
But the incredibly ironic part is that Stiles recalls her very first recruiting call as an assistant, then with Loyola-Marymount, was to Plum.
“I opened it with I don’t know if you know who I am … but I want to help you break my record to become the all-time leading scorer,” Stiles told the Seattle Times. “Of course, I didn’t get to help her. But I was like, ‘wow!’ She reminded me of myself when I saw her at that point, just how she played.”
Either way, Stiles embraces the chase and appreciates her reign as college basketball’s “scoring queen”, crediting her teammates for making it all possible.
“I still pinch myself that I’m the all-time leading scorer,” said Stiles. “It’s hard to believe that is me. If it does happen it’s been a great run.”
Missouri State is honoring Stiles on Feb. 12, unveiling a statue of her at JQH Arena.
“I have no idea what it’s going to look like, so I’ll be surprised as well. I’ve definitely wanted to peek under that tent to see, but it’ll definitely be an exciting moment and one I never imagined having here on campus.”
