Kerry Bascom

Kerry Bascom (born March 3, 1969) is a retired American women's basketball player.

She played forward and center for the Connecticut Huskies (UConn) from 1987 to 1991, scoring 2,177 points, a school record until broken in 1998 by Nykesha Sales.

Her scoring average of 22.6 in 1988–89 is the highest single-season scoring average among all Uconn players.

In addition, she ranks among the top ten in UConn history.

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Bascom occupies five of the top ten positions in the most points in a single game list, as well as top ten positions in numerous other single-game categories.

She helped lead the Connecticut team to its first ever Big East Conference regular season championship (1989), first Big East Tournament championship (1989), first NCAA tournament appearance (1989), first NCAA Tournament win (1990), and the first ever NCAA Final Four appearance (1991).

Bascom is the first UConn player to be named to a national All America team.

She went on to play for the gold medal-winning World University Games team in 1991.

Kerry Bascom attended Epping High School in Epping, New Hampshire, where her graduating class included only 44 students.

Schools in New Hampshire in the small school division are allowed to add middle school students to their rosters thus Kerry was able to join the junior varsity team as an eighth grader.

She scored 25 points in her first game and averaged 30 points a game on the junior varsity team, so she was added to the varsity team (after an exemption was granted).

She scored 12 points in four minutes in her first game.

During her sophomore year her team won the Class S (small) basketball championship, and during her junior and senior year her team was runner up in the Class M (medium) championship.

Kerry finished high school as Epping’s all-time leading scorer.

Bascom had a friend from a rival school call her and invite her to try out for an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) team in Massachusetts since they didn't have any in the New Hampshire area.

Bascom and her friend were two of the 12-member team who all hailed from New Hampshire.

They traveled to Massachusetts every weekend that year, and the following year they started an AAU team in New Hampshire.

This team ended up playing together for about five years.

Of the 12 players, 11 of them went on to play for Division I colleges.

Bascom's mom had been very sick with multiple sclerosis so Bascom wanted to stay close to home.

She narrowed her college selection down to UConn, Boston College, Syracuse University, Rutgers University and Boston University.

She chose UConn, which was 2½ hours away.

Bascom was coach Geno Auriemma's first blue-chip recruit.

Her freshman year was challenging as many of the upperclassmen had been recruited by the prior coach.

Her freshman roommate was a senior, who would occasionally lock her out of her room.

When Bascom used to tell people she was going to UConn, some thought she meant Yukon—as in the frigid Canadian territory—instead of the University of Connecticut, because at that time the school was not well known.

That would all change.

In her time at UConn the team had a lot of firsts for the university.

The Huskies won the first regular-season Big East title (sophomore year).

They also won their first Big East Tournament championship.

In her senior year the team went to their first NCAA Final Four trip.

As at Epping, Bascom finished her career as the leading scorer in points, with 2,177.

In 1998, Nykesha Sales broke the record via a controversial staged layup at the start of a game after suffering a season-ending injury.

Bascom graduated with a bachelor's degree in sociology from UConn.

The 6 foot Bascom wore 24 as her uniform number.

When Nykesha Sales was considering attending UConn, she asked for number 42; Sales had worn number 24 in high school, but out of respect for Bascom asked to have the digits reversed.

Charde Houston later went on to wear number 24.

Bascom was a member of the inaugural class (2006) of inductees to the University of Connecticut women's basketball "Huskies of Honor" recognition program.

As of 2009, Bascom's career scoring average of 18.1 per game is the highest among all UConn players.