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Every women’s college basketball player to dunk in a game – NCAA.com
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Nearly 36 years since the first in-game dunk, Stanford’s Fran Belibi became the eighth woman in DI women’s basketball history to slam it home on Dec. 13, 2020.
That made her part of the select company of eight women who have dunked in a game.
Here are the women’s college basketball players to dunk in a game, based on reporting from from AP’s Doug Feinberg and school archives.
The first women’s college basketball player to dunk in a game was Georgeann Wells. The West Virginia center threw down a right-handed jam on WVU’s home turf to take an 85-50 lead with just under 12 minutes to go on Dec. 21, 1984, in a battle against the University of Charleston.
The story of the dunk, and how a video of it was finally recovered 25 years after the fact is essential basketball history. You can read more about it and see the long-lost video on West Virginia’s web site here.
Before Charlotte Smith became the head women’s basketball coach at Elon University, she claimed the title of being the second women’s college basketball player in history to dunk during a game. Listed at 6 feet, Smith had major hops. Her collegiate dunk came on a fast break against North Carolina A&T in 1994 after Smith intercepted a pass, and slammed it home uncontested.
Sancho Lyttle began her college basketball career at Clarendon College, a small community college in North Texas, before transferring to the University of Houston. Lyttle recorded her dunk during her debut for the Cougars and went on to average 17.6 points and 10.7 rebounds during her time as a Lady Cougar.
Future WNBA star Sylvia Fowles, a member of the LSU hall of fame, earned conference player of the year honors, conference defensive player of the year honors, amassed 2,234 career points and led her team to the Final Four in each of her four seasons at LSU.
Fowles dunked in college against UL-Lafayette on Nov. 21 2007.
Appropriately listed on the roster as a guard, forward and center, Candace Parker was the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game, and the first to dunk twice in a tournament game. At the age of 15, she dunked for Naperville Central High School and is considered to be the first Illinois high school female athlete to dunk.
Parker became the fastest player to reach 1,000 points in Tennessee history, needing just 56 games to reach the milestone, won a slew of national player-of- the-year honors and, led by legendary coach Pat Summit, won back-to-back championships in 2007 and 2008. Parker finished her time in Tennessee with a record of 101-10 and averaged 19.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists.
With 18 slams, Griner holds the record for the most career dunks in women’s college basketball history.
The most recent woman to dunk in a game is Stanford’s Fran Belibi.
Playing for a consistently stacked Cardinal team, Belibi’s tenacious rebounding and ability to guard the perimeter as well the paint has given her an important role in Stanford’s system. Her first career dunk came in December 2020 at California. Her second slam came eight days later against UCLA in a Cardinal win.
Here is breakdown of each players career dunks (through Feb. 15, 2023):
Codi Childs is a graduate of Georgia State University and has been with Turner Sports since the summer of 2022. She covers a number of sports including men’s and women’s basketball, FBS football, and women’s gymnastics.
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