Tucson teen is Arizona's new high school girls basketball career points record leader

Arizona has a new high school girls basketball career points record leader and she’s from right here in Tucson.

Pueblo High School senior America Cazares broke the record Saturday night against No. 8 seed North High School in the 5A quarterfinals of the state championship. Cazares' 2,914th point came on a free throw.

She went on to score 39 points — for 2,932 career points, before she was carried out of the game with an apparent knee injury and before the Warriors fell to the North Mustangs, 63-62.

The previous record of 2,913 total career points was set by Julie Brase, who attended Catalina Foothills High School from 1994-98. Brase, now Brase Hairgrove, is the granddaughter of former Arizona men’s basketball coach Lute Olson. The former Arizona women’s basketball guard is now the assistant coach/director of player development under Becky Burke.

Brase’s record hasn’t been touched in nearly 30 years.

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The closest any player has ever been to breaking the record was around six years ago, when Alyssa Brown logged 2,680 total career points during her time at Sahuaro High School from 2017-21. Although her total could’ve been much higher if she hadn’t missed games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, Cazares will be placed ahead of Brase and Brown in the AIA’s official record book.

"It was nerve-wracking, of course," Cazares told All Sports Tucson after the game. "I wanted to win the state championship, so that's all I really cared about. I broke the record so, feels good."

She described the record-breaking moment as "really cool because there was the crowd and the loud gym." But noted "it's not how I wanted it to end." 

Though she hoped to close out her high school career with 3,000 total career points, Cazares will continue the next chapter of her basketball career at Pima Community College.