Dawn Staley congratulates A’ja Wilson as first WNBA player with 1,000-point season

Former South Carolina women’s basketball star forward A’ja Wilson continues to dominate the WNBA.

And the former No. 1 pick’s latest accomplishment etched her name further into history.

In the fourth quarter of the Las Vegas Aces’ 84-71 win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday, Wilson hit a fade-away jumper shot inside the paint to become the first player in WNBA history to score 1,000 or more points in a single season.

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Wilson’s Sunday heroics — she hit 13 of 25 shots for a game-high 29 points on top of nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks — come a few days after she surpassed Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd for the WNBA’s single-season scoring record vs. the Indiana Fever on Wednesday. Loyd previously held the record at 939 points, which she set last season.

It didn’t take long for Wilson’s former college coach Dawn Staley to congratulate her on X (formerly Twitter):

Wilson is leading the WNBA this season in points (27.0) and blocks (2.6) per game. She is second in rebounds per game behind former LSU standout and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese at 12.0. With two games remaining in the regular season and Reese out with a season-ending injury, Wilson is set to break Reese’s WNBA single-season rebound record. She is two rebounds away from tying Reese’s record of 446.

Since being drafted No. 1 overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft, Wilson has won back-to-back WNBA Most Valuable Player honors in 2022 and 2023 and was named the 2023 WNBA Finals MVP.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Dawn Staley commends A’ja Wilson on WNBA’s first 1,000-point season