O'Reilly reaches 1,000 points as Montville tops Randolph
MONTVILLE – It was an monumental night for the Montville girls basketball team in its 48-40 victory over Randolph on Tuesday.
Junior guard Kelly O'Reilly led the charge with 28 points to push her career total to 1,016 and in the process carried the Mustangs to their fifth-consecutive victory, enabling the team to reach .500.
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O'Reilly attained her 1,000th point when she made the second of two free throws with 35.5 seconds to play in the first half.
"It's exciting, it feels good," said O'Reilly, who entered the game with 988 points. "I was nervous. I was focused on getting the 12. I think I was focused a little too much on it."
With the burden lifted, O'Reilly charged out of the locker room for the second half and accounted for 13 of Montville's 14 third-quarter points when the Mustangs built a 40-30 advantage.
"My main focus, even after getting it, was getting the win," said O'Reilly, whose Montville squad is now 7-7. "Coming out in the second half, we were all ready. We were not so focused on it and we were ready to win."
O'Reilly is the third girls player in school history to score over 1,000 points, joining her sister, Katie, and Julianne Kowalski, who was the first to achieve the milestone in 2007. Katie O'Reilly, a 2014 Montville graduate currently playing at Scranton, is the all time leading scorer with 1,196 points.
Randolph (8-7) , which dropped its third in a row, made a late charge and was able to pull to within 45-38 after a 6-0 run.
Senior guard Cynthia Meringer, who finished with 12 points, got the streak started with a layup with 1:58 left in the game. Junior guard Keira Cesareo scored two of her nine points 15 seconds later and sophomore guard Jennie Lamancuso, who led the Rams with 15 points, hit a drop shot with 1:05 to play.
After a free throw from Montville senior forward Jennie Lake gave the Mustangs a 46-38 lead with 24.8 seconds to play, Lamancuso's rebound and layup with 10.3 seconds left in the game enabled the Rams to get to within 46-40.
"I know the last couple of games it's been in the back of Kelly's mind," Montville coach Derek Lynn said. "But even with that on her mind, we've been playing well. We were joking at halftime, saying now that she got it, we can relax and play team ball."
Lake finished with seven points for the Mustangs, sophomore Jane Beiermester and freshman Amanda Gorski scored four apiece, freshman point guard Lauren Mindardi added three and Jordan Strickland scored two.
"We knew coming into it that it would be a fight, and I was going to be mad if we didn't win," O'Reilly said. "We knew that it was important for us to win and we fought hard. We've dug ourselves out. At one point we were 2-7 and now we're 7-7."