Revisiting the highest performances by JuJu Watkins, Paige Bueckers and different girls’s NCAA Participant of the Yr contenders

The common season is over and March is right here. The NCAA Event is simply across the nook and so is award season in girls’s school basketball.

All yr lengthy, gamers have wowed us with neck-breaking highlights, record-book worthy performances and eye-popping stats. We’ve seen contenders for the nationwide Participant of the Yr award step up in large moments, like when USC’s JuJu Watkins fueled her group’s victory over UCLA within the common season finale to seize the Large Ten common season title. We’ve seen some gamers who’ve been constantly nice all yr lengthy, like LSU’s double-double machine in Aneesah Morrow. And we’ve seen gamers actually up their recreation in sure areas, like Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles bouncing again from a extreme knee harm and turning into a superb 3-point shooter.

Earlier than March Insanity arrives, let’s revisit the perfect performances of the season by the highest contenders for the nationwide participant of the yr:

Aneesah Morrow, LSU

For LSU, Morrow’s finest efficiency of the yr got here in its most up-to-date win: a victory over Florida within the quarterfinals of the SEC Event in Greenville, South Carolina. The senior ahead scored a season-high 36 factors for the short-handed Tigers – they have been taking part in with out star guard Flau’Jae Johnson – and he or she additionally grabbed 14 rebounds, and had two assists and three steals. Morrow has flown below the radar this season a bit, however she’s among the best gamers within the nation, full cease.

Paige Bueckers, UConn

With a stable supporting solid round her in Sarah Sturdy, Azzi Fudd, Kaitlyn Chen and others, Bueckers hasn’t all the time stuffed the stat sheet this season, however she has been merely superior in a couple of video games this season. Considered one of them was a non-conference win in November within the Greensboro Coliseum over North Carolina, through which the fifth-year guard piled up 29 factors, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in a win for the Huskies within the Tar Heel State. Her efficiency included this spectacular buzzer-beating 3-pointer on the finish of the primary quarter:

Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame

Probably the most electrical gamers within the nation, Hidalgo has turned heads all season together with her potential to select off passes, clean deal with, lightning pace and sharp taking pictures. There’s a couple of video games you would decide from when selecting Hidalgo’s finest efficiency of the season, however few have been higher than her outing in opposition to a marquee opponent Dec. 12, when the Irish defeated rival UConn. Hidalgo tallied 29 factors, a season-high-tying 10 rebounds, a season-high-tying eight assists and 5 steals.

Lauren Betts, UCLA

Betts has been regular all season lengthy for the Bruins, however her finest recreation got here on the street in mid-January in a win over the Maryland Terrapins. Betts shot a near-perfect 14-of-15 from the ground to attain a career-best 33 factors to associate with seven rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. UCLA received comfortably, 82-67, and the 6-foot-7 Betts was an enormous cause why.

JuJu Watkins, USC

It’s straightforward to make the case that Watkins’ first recreation of the season in opposition to rival UCLA was the perfect outing of her sophomore marketing campaign. At that time, heading into Feb. 13, the Bruins hadn’t misplaced a recreation all season. After which Lauren Betts and co. walked into the Galen Middle and located themselves with an incapability to comprise Watkins. She poured in 38 factors, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and a career-best eight blocks. Watkins took the sport over, dictated the tempo and made a big impact on each ends of the ground – all issues she’s completed typically this season.