Taylor Richards recently joined some pretty elite company at Utah State.

The Aggie senior, a guard on the women’s basketball team, became the fifth player in school history to join the 1,000-career points club.

“I never really set out a goal to score like that,” said Richards, who has tallied 1,024 points in her career at USU so far. “It’s definitely cool. Now that I know where I’m at, I kind of want to keep going and keep chugging away to get higher up on that list.”

Richards currently sits fourth on the all-time scoring list — 329 points behind the leader, Jerrie McGahan (1977-80).

USU's Taylor Richards (11). Photo by (Meegan M. Reid/Herald Journal)

When the season began, Richards was in 10th place.

She probably won’t catch McGahan, but there is a possibility Richards could finish her career in second place. Brenda House (1978-81) currently holds that spot with 1,192 points.

Richards eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau against New Mexico State on Jan. 12 in Las Cruces.

“I pretty much knew when it happened, because I knew that I had 10 points to go (going into the game) because my teammates had told me,” Richards said. “As soon as I hit that 11th point, I was like, ‘Oh, I think I just broke it.’

“It happened right before the game was over.”

The only downfall was that Richards’ Aggies didn’t come out victorious. NMSU took control in the second half and went on to beat USU, 71-56.

“It would’ve been a lot better (had we won),” Richards admitted. “It was kind of hard to enjoy it, but it was still good.”

Being among the top 10 all-time scorers at USU is just the tip of the iceberg for Richards.

She finds herself in the top 10 in plenty of other statistical categories, as well. Most notably, assists.

Richards is the Aggies’ career assists leader with a total of 338.

“That’s really exciting, actually, because coming in here everyone was a little bit in question — was I a distributor, was I a scorer?” Richards said. “So, that was a really good reward. I really enjoy being known for being a good passer to my teammates and everything.

“That one’s really neat, especially to be leading with that.”

By knocking down a couple of 3-pointers this past Saturday at Idaho, Richards moved into a first-place tie with former teammate Brittany Hagen for most treys in a career with 83.

Richards also is in the top-10 in career steals (second, 149), 3-point shooting percentage (fourth, .303), 3-point field goals attempted (second, 274), free-throw shooting percentage (fifth, .691) and games played (eighth, 101).

“When I say she’s everything, I don’t mean that she’s everything as far as our only kid that can score or our only kid that has talent,” USU head coach Raegan Pebley said. “That’s not it. But she just brings everything.

“... I feel really honored to have her as a part of this program, a part of this university.”

It’s hard to sum up in just a few words what Richards has meant to the program.

Just ask her coach.

“On the court, she’s just been a player that’s played significant minutes for four years,” Pebley said. “She’s brought a lot of experience, a lot of athleticism, scoring ability and a defensive ability.

“Character-wise, she’s a kid that you have to have as a part of your program. She’s an extremely hard worker, she’s very self-disciplined, she’s very focused and she has high expectations of herself.”

Richards certainly isn’t lacking any leadership qualities, either.

“The leadership that she’s brought to our team, especially over the last two years, is really valuable and it’s something she’s worked hard to develop,” Pebley said. “She’s somebody who can lead the team on the court and then she’s also a really good leader in the locker room.

“And she’s a caretaker. She loves these women on the team as sisters.”

That’s true.

When asked what she’ll remember most about her career at USU, Richards didn’t single out a game or a top performance she might have had.

“Probably just the girls in general,” Richards said. “We have a real good bunch of girls on and off the court — we don’t have any bad apples on our team. Everything just really flows and we get along together.

“Coach says that — and all the girls on our team have always agreed — chemistry is one of our best qualities up at this school, so that’s nice.”

Richards came to USU following a stellar career at Hunter.

The daughter of Ryck and Kelly Richards was a four-year letterwinner and captain for the Wolverines. As a senior, she led her team in scoring by averaging 18 points per game.

Richards was selected all-state and all-region during both her junior and senior seasons. She scored 34 points in her final prep game.

In her first season at USU, Richards started all 28 games she played in and averaged 10.3 ppg.

During her career, she has started all but 10 games and has improved greatly from her freshman season to now.

“When she was in high school, she really just survived off of her extreme athleticism and got layups after layups — rebound, layup; steal, layup,” Pebley said. “When she came to the collegiate game, there were a lot of times where her athleticism was close to matched and that was hard for her in her freshman year because the habits she developed, those were hard to break.

“It wasn’t about going just faster, faster. It’s about slowing down and making reads or separating your speeds and really developing a bigger basketball IQ, and that’s something I think she’s really, really done a good job of.”

The process wasn’t easy, however.

“It’s hard to do that because you have to watch tape and you have to kind of go through some criticism and you have to have your weaknesses pointed out to you and sometimes that’s done in front of teammates in film sessions,” Pebley explained. “She’s really gotten better and better at understanding that that’s a part of her game she had to develop and she has.”

Richards has had the unique opportunity of attending school with her brother, Tarell, who played football for the Aggies.

“That’s been awesome, especially since he got his year back this year,” Taylor said.

Tarell was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA prior to the start of the 2007 season.

“That was really cool and he got jersey No. 11, so we were both 11s in our senior year,” Taylor said. “That kind of meant a lot to us. It’s kind of cheesy, but me and my brother have always been close.

“He’s the one that really got me introduced to sports because I always wanted to play with my brother and that’s the only way I could play with him is if I played the sports, too. It’s really exciting to have him up here and to be able to be alumni with my brother.”

Taylor is working on a degree in elementary education.

She wants to teach at some point in her lifetime, but before doing that she has something else in mind.

“I want to go on and play, so I’m hoping that I have the ability to go to the next level,” said Taylor, who is averaging 10.2 ppg for the Aggies. “I’m being kind of optimistic here, but I’d definitely like to keep playing.

“I don’t think I could give it up yet.”

METRO NOTES:

Taylor Richards played for Anita Rowland's Utah Avalanche team, our predecessor.