Former Northwestern Basketball Star Posts First Double-Double in WNBA
Veronica Burton played for Northwestern from 2018 to 2022, developing and improving year over year. By her senior season, the guard was a star for the Wildcats, putting up 17.8 points per game, 6.4 assists and a whopping four steals per contest on the other end of the floor. She did it all for Northwestern.
After being drafted with the seventh pick in the WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings, it has taken some time for Burton to get comfortable at the next level. But in her fourth season this year, now with the Golden State Valkyries, things seem to be clicking on a different level.
On Saturday night, Burton posted her first career double-double against the Las Vegas Aces, dropping 14 points and dishing out 12 assists. It was the latest impressive performance in what has been a great first eight games of the season for Burton.
She is currently averaging 12.8 points per game, 4.9 assists and 4.6 total rebounds, all of which would be career highs by a large margin. Last season, Burton averaged just 3.1 points per game, which set her career mark at the time.
Defensively, Burton is looking more like her Northwestern self as well. She's averaging 1.8 steals per game, up from her career high of 0.9 in her rookie season.
Burton's improved play has allowed her to spend more time on the floor than in previous seasons, more than doubling her minutes from last season. She's currently averaging 28.1 minutes per game after only playing 12.7 minutes per contest last season, a career low.
Burton seems to be hitting her stride, and her first career double-double this weekend is further evidence of that. The first three seasons of her professional career didn't necessarily go as planned, but she seems to be comfortable with the Valkyries. The production is starting to come.
Read More Northwestern Wildcats Coverage
feed
Ryan Cole is a writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI covering every team on campus. He’s currently a junior at NU where he’s studying journalism and previously wrote and edited for Inside NU. He also studies business with an eye towards eventually helping develop business models to revive local news. In his free time, Cole enjoys watching sports, playing sports, reading the news and singing.