Ayoka Lee of Kansas State Sets the Division I Women’s Singles Score


Kansas State center Ayoka Lee set a record 35-year-old on Sunday, scoring 61 points, the most points in a Division I women’s college basketball game, and leading her team to a championship. 94-65 wins Manhattan, Number 14 Oklahoma in Kan was 5 points short of the opposing team.

“This is crazy,” Lee, a 6-foot-tall teen in a red shirt, told ESPN after the game. “I thought it was just going to be another Sunday.”

The NCAA Division I single-game scoring record was 60 points, set by Cindy Brown at Long Beach State in 1987 and tied in 2016 by Rachel Banham of the University of Minnesota, who currently plays in the WNBA for the Minnesota Lynx.

Lee set a record 23 out of 30 (76.7%) exiting the field and not scoring a single 3-pointer. He was also 15 in 17/17 from the free throw line and recorded 12 rebounds and three blocks.

“I don’t think anyone thought, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to break the record today,'” Lee told reporters after the game. “You knew it wouldn’t be easy. But we just worked so hard.”

Oklahoma has the second-highest scoring team in Division I women’s basketball, averaging 87.1 points per game. Circle Statistics.

“We wanted to keep our foot on the gas,” Kansas State Coach Jeff Mittie said after the game.

Mittie said the only time he considered taking Lee off the game was when there were only two and a half minutes left.

“We wanted to keep feeding him,” she said. “I didn’t know about the record. I didn’t look at the leaderboard all day to see how many points he had.”

Given how prolific Lee has been – averaging 25.5 points per game this season – his coach’s indifference made sense. He averages double-double points and rebounds (10.9 per game) and 3.5 blocks per game.

“You’ve been playing with him for so long you say, ‘That’s how he does it,'” Kansas State first-class guard Jaelyn Glenn said after the game. “Getting the ball in is always a goal for us because Yokie is so talented.”

Passing through Yokie, Lee is originally from Byron, Minn., a small town in the southeastern part of the state. His dominance in Kansas State gradually began to gain national attention; he has been lately John R. Wooden Award top 25 watchlist for the second year in a row.

His national profile was blocked due to the fact that he had never played in the NCAA tournament, despite being a young redshirt. The Wildcats last was in Lee’s freshman year and had missed it completely after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

That will likely change this season. Kansas State’s record is 15-4 and one game from the top spot in the Big 12. Lee’s contributions to the offensive and defensive flanks of the field are largely responsible for this change – a change that is especially monumental for one team. he last took part in the 16th round of the national tournament 20 years ago.

“It’s a lot more than 61 points and 12 rebounds for him,” Mittie said. “But I absolutely love that part.”



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