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List of NCAA Division I women's basketball career scoring leaders
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In basketball, points are the sum of the score accumulated through free throws or field goals. In National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I basketball, where a player's career is at most four seasons under normal circumstances, it is considered a notable achievement to reach the 1,000-points scored threshold. In even rarer instances, players have reached the 2,000- and 3,000-point plateaus (no player, whether male or female, has ever scored 4,000 or more points at the Division I level). The top 25 highest scorers in NCAA Division I women's basketball history are listed below. While the NCAA's current three-division format has been in place since the 1973–74 season, it did not sponsor women's sports until the 1981–82 school year; before that time, women's college sports were governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
To be listed in the NCAA record book, a player must have been active in at least three seasons during the era in which the NCAA governed women's sports—although for those players who qualify for inclusion in the record book, AIAW statistics are included. Most notably, Lynette Woodard of Kansas, whose career total of 3,649 points made her the career scoring leader in women's major-college basketball before Iowa's Caitlin Clark passed her on February 28, 2024, was not recognized as the NCAA career leader because her entire college career (1977–81) predated NCAA sponsorship of women's sports.
Some players among the top 25 scorers in Division I history played in the era before the three-point line was officially adopted in women's basketball on an experimental basis in 1986–87 and fully in 1987–88. All of the players with a dash through the three-point field goals column were affected by this rule. Valorie Whiteside of Appalachian State is the only three-point shot era player on this list who did not make a single three-point shot, and she only played in one season in which the use of the three-pointer was mandatory.
The three-point distance was first marked at from the center of the basket, the same distance then used in NCAA men's basketball. From that point through the 2007–08 season, the three-point lines remained at . On May 3, 2007, the NCAA men's basketball rules committee passed a measure to extend the distance of the men's three-point line back to ; the women's line remained at the original distance until it was moved to match the men's distance effective in 2011–12. The men's distance was changed to match the FIBA standard of in a two-phase implementation that took effect in 2019–20 in Division I and 2020–21 in Divisions II and III, but the women's distance was not changed until 2021–22, when it was moved to match the men's distance.
The only player on this list to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is Cheryl Miller; Maya Moore will officially enter the Hall on September 6, 2025.
Five players among the top 25 played basketball in more than four seasons. Rachel Banham of Minnesota tore her ACL 10 games into her senior season of 2014–15. She qualified for a medical hardship waiver, popularly known as a "medical redshirt", that allowed her to compete in a fifth season. Dyaisha Fair of Buffalo and Syracuse, Ashley Joens of Iowa State, Katelyn Young of Murray State, and Kyla McMakin of Longwood and Saint Louis benefited from a blanket NCAA waiver that did not count the 2020–21 season, which was impacted by COVID-19, against the athletic eligibility of any basketball player. Two players among the top 25 played at more than one school: Fair, who played the first three seasons of her career at Buffalo before transferring to Syracuse for her final two seasons of eligibility, and McMakin, who played three seasons at Longwood before transferring to Saint Louis.
Key
| Position | Guard | Forward | Center | References |
|---|
| Bold | Denotes current NCAA D1 Women's Basketball Record |
|---|
Top 25 career scoring leaders
| Player | Pos. | Team | Career | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| start | Career | |||||||||||||||
| end | Games | |||||||||||||||
| played | Field goals | |||||||||||||||
| made | 3-point field | |||||||||||||||
| goals made | Free | |||||||||||||||
| throws made | Points | PPG | Ref.{{efn | Except as otherwise noted, references for each entry are cited in the "General references" section below. Specifically: | ||||||||||||
| G | Iowa | 2020 | 2024 | 139 | 1,293 | 548 | 817 | 3,951 | **** | |||||||
| G | Washington | 2013 | 2017 | 139 | 1,136 | 343 | 912 | 3,527 | 25.4 | |||||||
| G | Buffalo / Syracuse | 2019 | 2024 | 153 | 1,159 | 430 | 655 | 3,403 | ||||||||
| G | Ohio State | 2014 | 2018 | 139 | 1,120 | 497 | 665 | 3,402 | 24.5 | |||||||
| † | G | Missouri State | 1997 | 2001 | 129 | 1,160 | 221 | 852 | 3,393 | 26.1 | ||||||
| C | Baylor | 2009 | 2013 | 148 | 1,247 | 2 | 787 | 3,283 | 22.2 | |||||||
| F | Mississippi Valley State | 1985 | 1989 | 110 | 1,196 | 24 | 708 | 3,122 | url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/w_basketball_RB/2020/D1.pdf | chapter=Career Records: Scoring Average | title=2019–20 Division I Women's Basketball Records | publisher=NCAA | page=15 | accessdate=December 13, 2019}} | ||
| F | Drake | 1980 | 1984 | 120 | 1,104 | — | 907 | 3,115 | 26.0 | name=CA}} | ||||||
| G | FIU | 2010 | 2014 | 131 | 1,099 | 160 | 749 | 3,107 | 23.7 | |||||||
| G | Minnesota | 2011 | 2016 | 144 | 1,081 | 354 | 577 | 3,093 | 21.5 | |||||||
| G/F | Iowa State | 2018 | 2023 | 158 | 988 | 344 | 740 | 3,060 | 19.3 | |||||||
| F | Delaware | 2009 | 2013 | 114 | 1,030 | 206 | 773 | 3,039 | 26.7 | |||||||
| * | F | UConn | 2007 | 2011 | 154 | 1,171 | 311 | 383 | 3,036 | 19.7 | ||||||
| F | Murray State | 2020 | 2025 | 155 | 1,122 | 141 | 644 | 3,029 | 19.5 | |||||||
| † | F | Tennessee | 1995 | 1999 | 146 | 1,233 | 36 | 523 | 3,025 | 20.4 | ||||||
| * | F | USC | 1982 | 1986 | 126 | 1,159 | — | 700 | 3,018 | 23.6 | name=CA}} | |||||
| G | Maine | 1994 | 1998 | 118 | 1,055 | 219 | 676 | 3,005 | 25.5 | |||||||
| F | Mississippi State | 1999 | 2003 | 125 | 1,119 | 34 | 709 | 2,981 | 23.8 | |||||||
| F | Appalachian State | 1984 | 1988 | 116 | 1,153 | 0 | 638 | 2,944 | 25.4 | name=CA}} | ||||||
| G | Penn State | 2000 | 2004 | 133 | 1,051 | 357 | 460 | 2,919 | 21.9 | |||||||
| C | LSU | 1980 | 1984 | 117 | 1,259 | — | 388 | 2,906 | 24.8 | name=CA}} | ||||||
| G | Longwood / Saint Louis | 2019 | 2024 | 164 | 1,033 | 315 | 518 | 2,899 | 17.7 | |||||||
| F | Villanova | 2019 | 2023 | 119 | 1,094 | 210 | 498 | 2,896 | 24.3 | |||||||
| G | Saint Francis (PA) | 2015 | 2019 | 130 | 965 | 472 | 473 | 2,874 | 22.1 | |||||||
| G | Oral Roberts | 2009 | 2013 | 126 | 1,052 | 195 | 568 | 2,867 | 22.8 |
Footnotes
References
;General
;Specific
References
- "Basketball glossary". FIBA.com.
- "NCAA 101: Our Three Divisions". NCAA.
- Iacobelli, Pete. (February 14, 2024). "The women's scoring record belongs to Pearl Moore. Caitlin Clark is unlikely to reach it this year".
- (February 24, 2024). "UHSP's Grace Beyer breaks NAIA women's hoops scoring record".
- (March 1, 2024). "AMC Women's Basketball Tournament Presented by Tandem HR Quarterfinals Recap". American Midwest Conference.
- (March 2, 2024). "AMC Women's Basketball Tournament Presented by Tandem HR Semifinals Recap". American Midwest Conference.
- Campbell, Dave. (February 28, 2024). "Caitlin Clark’s 33-point game puts her past Lynette Woodard for the major college scoring record".
- "Woodard also one to remember".
- Katz, Andy. (May 3, 2007). "Committee extends men's 3-point line to 20-9". [[ESPN]].
- (June 5, 2019). "Men's basketball 3-point line extended to international distance". NCAA.
- (June 3, 2021). "International 3-point line distance approved in women’s basketball". NCAA.
- "Hall of Famers: Cheryl Miller". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
- (April 5, 2025). "Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Announces Nine Inductees for the Class of 2025". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
- (January 2, 2017). "Minnesota Retires Rachel Banham's No. 1 Jersey". [[Women's National Basketball Association.
- Hays, Graham. (December 5, 2012). "Comfort Zone". [[ESPN.com.
- "Caitlin Clark". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Kelsey Plum". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Dyaisha Fair College Stats".
- "Kelsey Mitchell". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Jackie Stiles". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Brittney Griner". Sports Reference LLC.
- "2019–20 Division I Women's Basketball Records". NCAA.
- "Jerica Coley". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Rachel Banham". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Ashley Joens". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Elena Delle Donne". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Maya Moore". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Katelyn Young". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Chamique Holdsclaw". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Cindy Blodgett". Sports Reference LLC.
- "LaToya Thomas". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Kelly Mazzante". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Kyla McMakin". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Maddy Siegrist". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Jess Kovatch". Sports Reference LLC.
- "Kevi Luper". Sports Reference LLC.
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