Maryland sophomore guard Addi Mack delivered a career-high 35-point performance against No. 1 South Carolina, producing one of the biggest individual scoring displays of her college career on an international stage in Paris.
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As she made headlines, an older interview from her school days resurfaced when Sports on Prime and TerpsWBB shared a video pairing footage of a young Mack with her recent South Carolina performance. The throwback came from a seventh-grade interview in which she discussed her basketball goals and the player she hoped to play like.
“All I want to do is play like Paige Bueckers,” said Mack. “So if I can do, I just need to work on my ball handling and driving, and I have.”
The Maryland women’s basketball staff originally tracked down the seventh-grade interview after Mack’s 23-point breakout against Georgetown in Nov. 2025. In a Dec. 3 feature, the program revisited the footage, with Mack recalling that the interview came from her first season playing varsity basketball.
“When I saw that they found that interview and made that little edit to it, I thought it was a crazy, full-circle moment,” Mack said.
How Paige Bueckers Inspired Mack’s Early Basketball Journey
The connection between the two guards goes beyond simple admiration, as both players grew up in Minnesota. Bueckers attended Hopkins High School, while Mack played at Minnehaha Academy in Minneapolis, with the two schools approximately 15 miles apart. Mack recalled attending Bueckers’ high school games whenever she could, remembering that Bueckers was likely in her senior year while she was in seventh grade.
In the 2025 feature, Mack reflected on how that admiration influenced her own journey:
“I think even at that young age, having her to look up to has really allowed me to kind of be in the place where I am now, and hopefully have other girls look up to me.”
Mack was also building an impressive basketball résumé at Minnehaha Academy. She finished her high-school career with 4,687 points, securing the No. 2 spot on Minnesota’s all-time scoring list. As a senior, she averaged 34.2 points, 6.4 assists, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.3 steals across 30 games.
That scoring ability translated to the collegiate level during Mack’s 2025–26 freshman campaign at Maryland. She played 31 games and started 26, averaging 11.0 points and 2.9 rebounds while scoring in double figures 21 times. Her early impact earned her All-Big Ten Freshman Team honors.
In comparison, Bueckers’ freshman season at UConn in 2020–21 brought 20.0 points, 5.8 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game, along with AP National Player of the Year, Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy honors, making her the first freshman to win all three.
For Addi Mack, her career night arrived on Nov. 2, when No. 20 Maryland faced No. 1 South Carolina at Adidas Arena in Paris, France. Although the Gamecocks secured a 101–93 victory, Mack delivered the game’s standout individual performance, scoring 35 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field. She connected on 6-of-10 three-point attempts, dished out six assists and recorded three rebounds and two steals in 33 minutes. Her scoring total tied for the 11th-highest single-game performance in Maryland program history.
Mack’s performance unfolded after South Carolina took control early, scoring 33 points in the first quarter and carrying a 61–33 lead into halftime. She fueled Maryland’s second-half comeback attempt by scoring 31 of her 35 points after the break, including 17 in the third quarter on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from deep. With Mack leading the scoring surge and her teammates contributing, Maryland outscored the Gamecocks 26–17 in the third quarter and 34–23 in the fourth, cutting the deficit to six with 42 seconds remaining.
Though Mack put herself in the headlines, a win was not in the cards for Maryland.