Maryland women’s basketball’s Destiny Slocum made school history vs. Illinois

Maryland women’s basketball’s 84-59 win over Illinois was filled with individual accomplishments. Senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had a season-high 29 points and passed Vicky Bullett for fifth all-time in career points, and Brionna Jones passed Tianna Hawkins for fourth all-time in career rebounds.

The seniors have been climbing the all-time leaderboards this season, but Destiny Slocum has made her way up the freshman lists as well. Slocum had a career-high 13 assists Thursday to bring her season total to 148. That’s No. 3 all-time for assists by a freshman, and also the most assists by a freshman in a single game.

Slocum started the night seventh on the freshman list, and one of the four players she passed during the game was Kristi Toliver, Maryland’s all-time leader in assists.

“She’s like the best point guard I’ve ever heard of,” the freshman said of Toliver. “We hear about her every single day, so that’s something big.”

Slocum has heard about Toliver for good reasons. Not only is she Maryland’s all-time leader in assists with 751, but her 300 career three-pointers are 128 more than the next Maryland player. She’s also the only Terp to ever win the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation’s most outstanding point guard.

It appears Slocum is on a similar track. She passed Toliver’s freshman assist totals in 13 fewer games, and should easily surpass Dara Taylor’s record of 171 before the season ends.

“She would rather make a big assist over anything she does,” Frese said. “That’s like hitting a three for her, being able to hit a teammate with a wide open pass.”

Slocum should also smash Toliver’s freshman record of 59 three-pointers made, as she hit three on Thursday to bring her season total to 53.

If she keeps up this pace, Slocum could become the first player since Toliver graduated in 2009 to challenge her career records for assists and three-pointers.

Slocum is trying to stay humble during her record-setting season, as she said that she wouldn’t be able to do it without her teammates. It’s true that not every point guard has players as talented as Jones and Walker-Kimbrough, but Slocum is also an exceptional point guard.

“When you’ve got a point guard like Destiny Slocum, it’s like second warm-ups out there,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “The shots are wide open.”