WESTFIELD, Mass. – Senior guard Jill Valley (Mahar HS/Orange, Mass.) needed 11 points to get to 1,000 in her career.
She took care of that item of business in the first half and exploded for a career-high 35 points to lead Westfield State to a 101-94 win over Eastern Connecticut State in a non-conference women's basketball game between two of the top Division III programs in New England at Westfield State's Woodward Center in front of a loud partisan crowd, many of whom had come out to see Valley's big night.
"It wasn't the entire population of Orange, but a lot of people came to the game," said Valley.
What they saw was also another bit of history, as the two teams combined 195 points to make it the highest-scoring combined score for two teams in Westfield State women's basketball history.
"It was probably one of the most fun games I had ever played in," said Valley, whose high school career high was 32 points. She had scored 30 points in a collegiate game twice already this season.
Valley netted her 1000th point of a quick crossover dribble and drive for a layup with 8:51 left in the second half.
"I was excited [about the chance to get her 1000th point]," said Valley. "But I was more nervous about losing than scoring the 1000 points. I was glad it was over with, because I felt relieved, but I was just having fun the whole game. I wanted to win; that's all I cared about."
The 35- point game is tied for the second-highest individual total in a game in Westfield State history. Only Dorothy Rickus' 42-point game in the 1974-75 season exceeded Valley's output. Rickus twice netted 35 in a game an Owl has had that many points since Bev Carter matched that mark in 1976.
"Jill played so well, and hit so many clutch shots at clutch times for us," said Westfield State head coach Andrea Bertini. "Big free throws, finishes in the paint, the three-pointer off a screen – she was the run stopper. It seemed like she was always the one hitting a big shot."
Westfield led 29-18 at the end of the first quarter, and 51-39 at the half. The Warriors kept the game close throughout the second half cutting the lead to as few as four, on a pair of free throws by Jordan Nappi (Mercy/Southington, Conn.) with 8:14 left in the third quarter, but the Owls stretched their led back to as many as 15 with a three-pointer from Alyssa Darling (Palmer, Mass.) with 3:05 left in the quarter to give Westfield a 74-59 advantage.
Three times in the fourth quarter eastern got the lead down to as few as six points, the last on a Lexis Foster (RE Fitch/Groton, Conn.) layup with 5:01 to play, but Valley answered as she did throughout the contest with a layup 40 seconds later to stretch the lead back to eight points, 92-84, and the Warriors would get no closer.
"Honestly, I kept looking at the score and I wasn't comfortable with our lead," said Valley. "So I just kept going to the hoop and it was going in so I kept doing that."
Valley finished 13-22 from the floor, 2-4 from three-point range and 7-8 from the foul line. She added seven rebounds, six steals and three assists in an eye-popping stat line.
Valley becomes the 15th player in Owls history to reach the 1,000 point plateau and moves into 14th place on the school's career scoring list with 1,024 points after tonight's game. 2016 Owls' graduate Forbasaw Nkamebo was the last Westfield State player to reach the milestone just last season. Valley joins her coach, Andrea Bertini '96 in the 1,000 point club. Westfield State Athletic Hall of Famer Amanda Braden'98 is the Owls' all-time leading scorer with 1,526 points.
"Jill has been playing tremendous this season," said Bertini. "She's the purest scorer I have ever had as a coach, and probably that I played with either. She doesn't have an offensive weakness to her game – she can shoot, she can drive, she can use either hand, and she's our best three-point shooter, and it's because she works so hard on her game."
Junior center Rebecca Sapuckey (Granby HS/Chicopee, Mass.) added 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Westfield, with sophomore forward Kierra McCarthy (Ludlow, Mass.) adding 10 points and five rebounds.
"It was a complete and total team effort as we contributions from so many people tonight," said Bertini, who used all 18 players on her roster and saw 12 different Owls score..
"I really enjoyed it," laughed Bertini about the competitive high-scoring game. "It was fun, it was certainly stressful and some highs and lows in the game.I felt like we were finally running at a faster pace today, we finally figured out how hard we can go and how fast we can play – and we still missed some layups, we still aren't executing in the half court as well I'd like, but that being said I can't complain about scoring 101 points."
Westfield State improves to 4-1 with the win, while Eastern Connecticut drops to 3-1.
Eastern Connecticut had six players score in double-figures, led by 18 points and six rebounds from Nappi. Foster added 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. The Warriors finished with 21 assists on their 29 buckets, but were forced into 31 turnovers by the Owls full court pressure defense, as Westfield came away with 20 steals on the night.