By DAVE O’SULLIVAN
Staff Writer
If you wanted to, you could probably have two complete all-star rosters of 1,000-point scorers in South Jersey — that’s how many athletes reached the coveted milestone this season in high school basketball.
It seemed like every other day there was an announcement on social media about another player getting to 1,000 career points. The flurry of names continued from late December all the way through to the state playoffs. Heck, the Mainland Regional girls team had three of its five starters — Kasey Bretones and twins Ava and Bella Mazur — reach the milestone this season.
So, what does it take to become a 1,000-point scorer? What kind of attributes does an athlete need to have? If you do basic math you know that if a player plays in 25 games per season for four years, he or she has to average 10 points per game to reach 1,000. If a player is on varsity for just three seasons, they have to average more, and with only two seasons of varsity a kid has to average north of 20 points per game to get there.
But aside from the math and the numbers and what’s needed from a statistical perspective, what else is needed?
If anybody thinks getting to 1,000 points is easy, just ask any of the players who saw their names on banners this season and they’ll tell you about all the late nights at the gym, the early mornings, the work they did when nobody was watching, the thousands of shots that create the muscle memory that a shooter’s touch demands.
One of the interesting things revealed when talking to all these athletes is a common sense of relief when they finally did score their 1,000th point. Everybody knows when someone is closing in on the milestone, and usually there’s a countdown of sorts from teammates, coaches, fans — even during the game in which everyone knows it’s likely to happen, there’s a lot of pressure.
Even opponents sometimes know when somebody is going for 1,000 points, and it’s a badge of honor if your team can deny that scorer their moment in the sun. Our Lady of Mercy Academy senior Madelynn Bernhardt came into a January game against Egg Harbor Township needing 15 points for 1,000, and by halftime she had scored nine. An EHT player said during the second-half warmups that the Eagles were not going to let her get to 1,000.
She eventually did, scoring a basket on a baseline drive to give her 16 for the game and 1,001 for her career. Some players need just a handful of points to get there, which takes some of the pressure off, but by and large players said they felt an overwhelming sense of relief once they reached the milestone.
Here’s a sampling of what some of South Jersey’s best players and coaches said about reaching 1,000 career points, and what it takes.
TYE DORSET, Lenape, senior: “For me, it’s a team award. We’re all playing and making shots, and (my teammates) get me the ball. It’s a cool feeling.”
MATT WOLF, Lenape boys coach: “We talked a little bit before the game (against Cherokee on Jan. 25) about just playing your game and don’t think about it, but it’s impossible not to think about it. (Dorset) is such a good player and once he hit his 1,000th point it was a weight lifted off his shoulders and he could just go out there and play. As he goes, we go. He’s one of the best we’ve ever had. Even when he’s having a bad game he’s going to pump everybody up and lean on his teammates. He’s such a smart, great kid. He’s a coach’s dream.”
BELLA MAZUR, Mainland Regional, senior: “It feels really good. To be one out of three starters on this team feels amazing. We’ve been playing since second grade and it’s one of our biggest accomplishments. I’m just so happy that I could do this in front of this big crowd (in the CAL final). It feels great. It’s so special. Being the third person on this team to score 1,000 points, it just shows that it’s not just one person on this team who can score. It’s just so special to be a part of this group.”
QUINN GIBSON, Cherry Hill West, junior: “I only played the second half of my freshman season, and sophomore year I was more of a shooter. This past summer I really focused on my work every day and trying to get more of my game centered around dribbling and running the floor. I feel like you just have to put a lot of work in. It’s all mental, too. You can’t get down after you have a bad game. It’s a little weird (to see so many kids get it) but it’s not like we don’t want to see it — it’s a great milestone for everyone at all these schools, and you’ll see yourself on a banner someday. It’s difficult, but achieving it felt amazing. I had a lot of support from my coaches and teammates. When I was in range of it there was a lot of pressure. I was 26 points away coming into a game at home and I scored 24. The team was triple-teaming me so I couldn’t get it, so I got it on the first play of the next game. It means a lot to me.”
FRED BATTEE, Cherry Hill West boys coach: “Quinn was here every day last summer, really putting the work in and really wanting to get better. In the fall he was coming into the gym before school, after school — just constantly trying to get better. I told him that I live close to the school so whenever he needs me I can come over and open up the gym. It’s just been hard work. It seems to be a lot (this past season) and a lot of kids had to get it in three years (because of covid). Kids are working hard, they are skilled, they have trainers, they’re constantly working on their skills. When Quinn came in I told him he had the potential to be one of the best players in South Jersey if he worked hard and did all the things he needed to do, and he’s well on his way to being that. Some kids come in as freshmen and peak, and other kids trend up along the way. It depends on their work ethic. If they have good habits to go along with talent, the sky is the limit.”
JOHN ARCIDIACONO, Absegami boys coach: “It’s that dog mentality. A guy who is going to come in every night, put in the work, not going to take any game off or any opponent lightly. He’s a guy who’s ready to score 20 points and believes he’s going to score 20 on everybody. So, there’s a certain confidence, a certain swagger that comes along with it. A guy like Isiah (Akpassa), a guy like Gibson from Cherry Hill West — you can tell, when they walk into the gym they are ready to just beat you. Isiah worked his tail off for three years — and he scored 1,000 points in three years, which is pretty impressive. He was going to the gym late at night, lifting, running. He’d be at the courts until midnight on a school night. And he continued to develop for three years, doing everything we asked him to do. He puts in a ton of work off the court, and it shows. He’s been a big part of our success the last three years.”
MADELYNN BERNHARDT, Our Lady of Mercy Academy, senior: “I started playing basketball in second grade and through middle school I always knew that scoring 1,000 points and just being a good basketball player overall is the ultimate goal. Freshman year, I started off a little rocky. But toward the end I was really confident in my role and I felt like this is what I was meant to be doing. I felt really comfortable in the position that I was at. For me, confidence is really important. If you’re open, just take the shot. You regret more of the shots you don’t take rather than missing a certain shot. I always had confidence, and I always knew I wanted to reach that goal. I’m happy I was able to. It’s really important to take those extra shots after practice, and during the offseason that you’re still making it a point to work out. That has really helped me in regard to getting to 1,000 points. It’s really important the things you do outside of basketball practice. It can be a mental grind. In the moment it feels like you’re tired and it feels like it’s dragging, but all the hard work pays off in the end. I definitely felt very relieved, for sure. But it also felt like everything that I had been working for since freshman year finally paid off. It’s all very rewarding. The most stressful part for me was I needed fifteen points, which is obviously doable, but it still was a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I remember the first possession, I turned it over and I was freaking out. But, during halftime, I kind of got it together. EHT is a really good team, so I had to stay confident and not shut down. All my family there supporting me definitely helped me, too.”
BRIAN COYLE, OLMA girls coach: “I was an assistant when (Bernhardt) was a freshman, and I actually knew her from youth basketball because I coached against her, so I knew her a little bit coming in. From Day One as a freshman she was amazing. She’s always been a hard worker and a great listener. She comes from a great family, so I wasn’t surprised. I knew she could score and I knew she had some skill, but I wouldn’t say right away (I knew she could score 1,000). She was a good shooter right away and she played a lot as a freshman. She had a 23-point game as a freshman, so I knew that there was the ability to be a scorer. But I think she really has developed herself from not just being the shooter, but she’s developed her attack game all the way to the rim, and her pull-up game is outstanding. So I saw there was a possibility of her getting 1,000. Nothing was handed to her, though, she’s worked very hard to get to where she is.”
JOHN BRUNO, Ocean City boys coach: “The 3-point shot has a lot to do with it. A lot of these kids are mostly shooters. It certainly helped that Kori (Segich) had 53 threes this season. The ability of these kids to shoot the ball is getting better and better. Kids who can shoot the ball are going to be able to score a lot. As a sophomore you’re usually a role player putting up nine or 10 points a game. The important thing is you have to improve as you go along, and you need to stay healthy. Kori was injured for 15 or 16 games so he wouldn’t have been able to reach it unless he averaged what he did (24 points per game as a senior). You have to have a strong sophomore season to get started, and you have to do it within the framework of your team. If you try to score 1,000 points, you probably won’t. Anybody who scores, that’s obviously in the back of their mind. But you want to make sure you remain true to your team while trying to get there. That’s a hard balance — you’re trying to do something for yourself but you’re also trying to help the team win, so consistency is the key from your sophomore year on.”
KORI SEGICH, Ocean City, senior: “It’s really the work behind the scenes when no one is watching, down on the court by yourself for hours and hours. You can’t expect to just walk into the gym and be the best one out there. You have to grind it out. I wasn’t really focused on it but I always knew there was a chance because I knew I was going to be the No. 1 scoring option (as a senior). I’m just happy my teammates found me and I scored so much. I always wanted to be a 1,000-point scorer when I was a kid. It was a goal of mine. Actually, my goal was to be the school’s all-time leading scorer. I came up a bit short, but I’m fine with that. It’s a great feeling that my name is going to be on that banner forever. Confidence is the main thing. If you don’t have confidence in yourself and keep shooting after you miss, things can get in your head when you mess up. You have to forget and move on, everyone makes mistakes. Just don’t make the same mistake twice. When I reached it, I was relieved. A lot of people didn’t know if I was going to get it because of all my injuries, so when I got it I was pretty relieved.”
Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sullyglorydays@gmail.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays
