Sabrina Ionescu Becomes First D-I Player With 2K Points, 1K Assists, 1K Rebounds
Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu continues to create new categories in the NCAA record book.
On Monday night against Stanford, the Ducks senior guard became the first player in NCAA Division I history (male or female) to record 2,000 career points, 1,000 career assists and 1,000 career rebounds.
"That one was for him," she said, referring to her mentor Kobe Bryant. "To do it on 2/24/20 is huge. We had talked about it in the preseason. I can't really put that into words. He's looking down and really proud of me and just really happy for this moment with my team."
She entered Monday's action with an extraordinary 25 career triple-doubles, by far the most in NCAA history. She recorded her 26th during the 74-66 win, finishing the game with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.
Hours before taking on Stanford, Ionescu was among the speakers that paid tribute to Kobe Bryant, his daughter, Gianna and the seven other people that died on the Jan. 26 helicopter crash. She was the lone collegiate athlete to speak at the event. She spoke about her friend and mentor Kobe and discussed many of the lessons he passed down to her.
She added that she had already helped mentor Gianna and said that, “If I represented the present of the women’s game, Gigi was the future, and Kobe knew it. So we decided to build a future together.”
She then flew to the arena following the memorial service.
The senior guard bypassed the WNBA draft last year after Oregon loss to Baylor in the national semifinals. The reigning national player of the year instead chose to return to school in hopes of taking home what has been an elusive national title.
No. 3 Oregon takes on Washington State on Friday before closing out its season on Sunday when it hosts Washington.