A single game of basketball, with timeouts, is more or less 2 hours long, but there’s always so much more time, effort and energy involved to make the event truly special. In Part II of this three-part profile, we take a deep dive into Bridget Carleton’s 41-point game on Jan. 17, 2024, between Serco UNI Győr and KGHM BC Polkowice, to show what needed to happen for a Canadian woman to make European basketball history.
In a moment the sensation subsided, she relaxed and smiled.
Carleton’s dad is laid back and her mom taught her early on in high school how to keep a level head and stay grounded, even when she’s playing at an incredible level. The thing is to never get too high on yourself, but also to not allow self-doubt to creep in. She opened the game with solid shooting and staying grounded was her way of remaining in the zone.
That’s exactly the mindset she returned to when she missed her next shot, a stepback 3. Polkowice put their best defender, Brittney Sykes, on her for a brief period. The Washington Mystics guard played college ball at Syracuse and was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2017 WNBA Draft. She has led the WNBA in steals twice and made the WNBA All-Defensive Team twice. When it comes to defending the ball, Sykes is WNBA royalty.
Soon, Carleton…
