York women’s basketball player Laura MacCallum made history on Saturday evening as she became the Lions all-time leading scorer with 1,377 points. Her 28-point performance also moved her into fourth place on the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) all-time scoring list.
MacCallum needed only 11 points to pass former Lions star Nastassia Subban’s career total of 1,359 and 21 to move ahead of Wilfrid Laurier University’s Meaghan McGrath for fourth best in league history.
Right: Laura MacCallum
A native of Paris, Ont., MacCallum is currently enjoying her best season yet, averaging a career-high 18.17 points per game, putting her second in the OUA and fourth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) in scoring.
Despite a loss to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in the record-breaking game, MacCallum was dominant for the Lions as she has been throughout her career. She shot 11-of-24 from the field, including four-of-six from three-point range, and was perfect from the free throw line on all 10 attempts for a game-high 28 points. She also chipped in with a pair of assists and a blocked shot.
The five-foot-seven guard has been a star in interuniversity sport and on the Lions since she arrived at York University five years ago. She was named an OUA Eastern Division first-team all-star in each of the past two seasons and was the CIS rookie of the year and a member of the OUA Eastern Division all-rookie team in 2004-2005. In all five years of her university career she has been among the OUA leaders in scoring – including twice where she finished in the top 10 – and has been one of the Lions’ top two scorers in every season she’s played for the team.
"Laura is the epitome of a player that all coaches want on their team," said Lions head coach Bill Pangos. "She is a tremendous student, is coachable, has a strong will to compete, can play at both ends of the court and provides tremendous leadership on and off the court. She has been a major contributor to the Lions winning an OUA championship in 2006-2007, and competing in two CIS national championship tournaments. Most importantly, Laura has represented York with class and as a result, she has earned the respect of players and coaches in the OUA. It has been a privilege to have coached her for five years. She has literally given our Lions program everything she has and that’s all you could ask of anyone."
MacCallum has four games remaining this season before her illustrious career comes to an end. She will return home with the rest of the Lions next weekend for games against the Royal Military College Paladins and Queen’s University Gaels and will close out the year with home games against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and Ryerson University Rams the following weekend.