Naperville Central senior guard Emily Moran knew what she was doing when she passed the ball to teammate Erin Hackett in the fourth quarter Thursday night.
But Moran didn’t grasp the significance of her action.
Hackett received the pass in the left corner and proceeded to swish a 3-pointer with 7:08 left. The go-ahead basket against visiting DeKalb also gave the junior guard 1,001 career points.
“It didn’t really cross my mind,” Moran said. “I just thought she was open, and I’m going to trust her to hit the shot every time, and she did.”
Hackett, who finished with a game-high 22 points in the Redhawks’ 46-42 DuPage Valley Conference win, knew she was 18 points shy of the milestone when the game started. She had 13 points after a layup at the beginning of the second half.
But Hackett missed her next six shots.
“It was definitely a lot of mental pressure,” she said. “I was forcing up a few shots, but I just needed to remember it would come naturally.”
Hackett knew she was close when she let the 3-point shot fly. It gave the Redhawks (6-6, 2-1) a 37-36 lead.
“I was hoping it was going to be (the milestone shot),” she said. “Honestly, I just saw the girl running at me. I was in good rhythm, and I just took the shot. It felt good.”
Moran felt similarly about having a hand in it. That was one of her three assists.
“It was obviously great being a part of that play,” Moran said. “I love any time I get to pass the ball to one of my teammates and watch them shoot and make it.”
Hackett is the 13th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. She is only the third to do it before her senior year, joining Candace Parker and Gabi Melby.
Parker, a former WNBA star who is Naperville Central’s career scoring leader with 2,753 points, reached the mark during her sophomore season. Melby, who is sixth with 1,351 points, did it as a junior.
“It’s a tremendous accomplishment to get 1,000 points, let alone to get it in game 12 of your junior year,” Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum said. “It’s almost unfair to talk about Candace in the same breath, but when you talk about Melby, Melby was a starter, and I don’t think she got her 1,000th until maybe January.”
Hackett, who didn’t start as a freshman, said she didn’t expect to reach the milestone this quickly.
“I was just hoping to get it by my senior year,” she said. “My freshman year was a rough start, but in the second half I got a little more playing time. My sophomore year, I stepped it up.”
Hackett shared the credit with her teammates.
“It’s definitely an honor,” she said. “It just shows how much work everybody puts in. It’s not just me. It’s a whole team effort that adds up to it.”
The Redhawks needed a great effort against DeKalb (7-3, 1-2), which took a 40-39 lead with 4:50 left. But the 5-foot-4 Moran made a spin move past two much taller defenders to score her only points of the game, putting Naperville Central ahead to stay.
The Redhawks have won four straight games, the last three of which have come by a combined eight points.
“It just shows that this year we’re competitive in the DVC,” Hackett said. “We have more effort during the games, and we’re not letting up even if we’re down. We were down six at the beginning of this game.”
It’s hard to be down around Hackett.
“Being Erin’s teammate is great,” Moran said. “You always know she’s going to hit the shot most of the time.
“But when she doesn’t have that shot, she always recognizes when she needs to pass it out, which is one of the things I love about playing with her.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
