Grace Beyer, the star guard for the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, shattered the women’s NAIA career scoring record this Saturday. Beyer’s impressive 32-point performance in UHSP’s 80-56 victory over Hannibal-LaGrange (Missouri) pushed her to a historic milestone, collecting a career total of 3,874 points. The achievement surpasses the previous NAIA record of 3,855 points set by Miriam Walker-Samuels of Claflin (South Carolina) between 1987 and 1990.
Beyer, known for her sharpshooting and scoring consistency, needed just 14 points to break the record, per ESPN. She achieved this feat early on in the game, securing the record with a 3-pointer just four and a half minutes into the second quarter.
With an impressive average of 34.5 points per game this season, Beyer is on pace to challenge the women’s all-college scoring record of 4,061 points set by Pearl Moore. Moore’s record includes 3,884 points scored for Francis Marion, an AIAW member school in South Carolina, from 1975 to ’79, and an additional 177 points at Anderson Junior College. Moore remains the sole woman to have scored over 4,000 points. Heading into the last game of the regular season, the UHSP team was in a four-way tie for fourth in the American Midwest Conference.
John Pierce holds the record for the highest all-college score, with 4,230 points scored for Lipscomb from 1990 to ’94, during its time as an NAIA program. Meanwhile, Caitlin Clark of Iowa has been in the news for setting the women’s NCAA Division I scoring record, amassing 3,593 points up to last Friday, and is now aiming to surpass Pete Maravich’s record of 3,667 points.
Maravich ranks eleventh overall among both men and women players, with the top ten featuring six from the NAIA, three from NCAA Division II and one from the AIAW. Beyer’s recent achievements have elevated her to fifth place on this list, which includes four women.
In her record-setting game, Beyer scored 32 points on 9-of-23 shooting, including hitting six three-pointers, and was flawless from the free-throw line, sinking all eight attempts. She also contributed four rebounds and six assists to her team’s victory. Teammates Samantha Matthews and Elizabeth Allanach added significant firepower, with Matthews scoring 23 points and Allanach 22, bolstering the team’s three-point tally to 20 out of 48 attempts. Lesley Ivy led Hannibal-LaGrange with 26 points.
Throughout this season, Beyer has consistently delivered exceptional performances, including seven games where she scored 40 or more points, with her highest being 51.
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