Bueckers received 70 of the 72 votes from sports writers and broadcasters in balloting announced by the league on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers was a runaway choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year after one of the best debut seasons in league history.<\/p>\n
Bueckers received 70 of the 72 votes from sports writers and broadcasters in balloting announced by the league on Tuesday. The other two went to Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron.<\/p>\n
Bueckers, who in a whirlwind week last spring went from leading UConn to its 12th national championship to being drafted with the No. 1 overall pick, was a bright spot on a team that tied the Chicago Sky with a league-worst 10-34 record.\u00a0The AP Rookie of the Year<\/a>, she averaged 19.2 points on 47.7% shooting along with 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals.<\/p>\n But those numbers don’t tell the complete story.<\/p>\n Her 692 points and 194 assists were the third most by a WNBA rookie. The highlight was when she scored 44 in a loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on Aug. 20.<\/p>\n It was the WNBA’s highest point total this season and the most ever by a rookie. She also became the first player in league history to score 40 or more while shooting 80% in a game. That performance came near the end of a 30-game double-digit streak, the third longest to start a career behind A\u2019ja Wilson’s 33 games in 2018 and Candace Parker’s 32 games in 2008.<\/p>\n