Sabrina Ionescu Comes Up Big in Moments On and Off the Court

How good is she?

A 5-foot-11 point guard, she won gold medals with the American under-17 and under-23 teams. At Oregon, she was the college national freshman of the year. As a sophomore, she was named point guard of the year, and as a junior last season she repeated as point guard of the year while also winning both the Wade Trophy and the John R. Wooden Award, which are presented annually to the top collegiate player.

She has been racking up the statistical achievements. She has more triple-doubles, 26, than any collegian, male or female. She holds Oregon’s career records in points, assists and 3-pointers. She surpassed Gary Payton as the Pac-12’s career assists leader.

When she arrived at Oregon, the team had not made the N.C.A.A. tournament in 12 years. With Ionescu in the lineup, Oregon made the final eight of the tournament two straight years and the Final Four last season.

What happened Monday night?

Ionescu flew from the memorial service to Stanford for a game. Oregon won, 74-66, and although she missed the shoot-around and warm-ups, she scored 21 points with 12 rebounds and 12 assists.

She also became the first player to reach 2,000 career points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds in a collegiate career.

“That one was for him,” she told ESPN. “To do it on 2-24-20 was huge. I can’t put it into words. He’s looking down and proud of me and happy for this moment with my team.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/25/sports/ncaabasketball/sabrina-ionescu-oregon.html