Pretty much everyone in Nazareth’s gym was waiting for this particular moment.
With 7:27 left in the fourth quarter of a Jan. 18 game against York in Coach Kipp’s Hoopfest, Nazareth’s Stella Sakalas went to the line to shoot two free throws.
She made the first and the P.A. announcer revealed what the big deal was: Sakalas had become the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 career points.
Roadrunners coach Ed Stritzel called a timeout to help Sakalas and her family celebrate the milestone. Then she went back to the line and made the second free throw. A couple minutes later, Sakalas scored on a layup and a few minutes after that she went to the bench with 17 points for the night and 1,003 for her career.
Neither Sakalas nor Stritzel wanted to put too much weight on the milestone after Nazareth’s 56-34 win. Both are focused on bigger goals, including the IHSA Class 4A playoffs that start Feb. 15.
“It’s been looming for a little while,” Sakalas said. “I actually tried to not come in and think about it, and just play basketball. And it was a good game. Everyone played hard, and I just tried to play within myself and play my role.”
Still, she appreciated getting to 1,000 points on her home court.
“Me and a couple other girls played in coach Ed’s kids camp,” Sakalas said. “So there’s a bunch of little kids from the neighborhood and all my family’s here. It was really exciting.”
Sakalas was the first player off the bench her freshman season, when the Roadrunners went 35-1 and won the Class 3A title. She moved into the starting lineup last year for the 32-4 Class 4A runners-up.
“The girls know how I operate all these years,” Stritzel said. “I’m not big on individual awards. I call it a necessary evil. It’s a great award for Stella — get it over with. I think those things distract teams. … I could tell (that when) she was at 13 or 12 (points for the game) and she missed a couple buckets she normally makes.
“But she’s a wonderful kid and we’re happy for her, and we’re happy for the program.”
As good as Sakalas is now, Stritzel believes Sakalas is still a rising star.
“Her better days are ahead of her,” Stritzel said. “She’s all of 6-1, she can shoot it at all three levels. She has the floater, she had a 3-point game, she rebounds. …
“Some kids max out in high school. I think she’s gonna get better in college. That (kind of) game is going to suit her even more.”
Sakalas didn’t come to Nazareth expecting to be a big scorer.
“I just came in as myself and started playing as myself,” she said. “The team was very talented and I played my role within the team.
“And then as they graduated and I got better, I was able to put myself into their (roles) and figure it out.”
Now Sakalas is one of the more experienced players on a Nazareth team that has only two seniors — just one of whom, Valparaiso-bound guard Allia von Schlegell, starts. The other starters are 5-10 sophomores Samantha Austin and Sophia Towne along with 5-7 junior Lyla Shelton.
“As the year’s gone on, we’ve definitely improved,” Sakalas said. “We’re 18-2 and we play a pretty difficult schedule, so that speaks for itself. … We’re a very young team and we get to play, for the most part, together for another year. So I think just growing and improving as the year goes on is a big (thing) for us.”
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