Highland girls hoops standout Brown notches 1,000th career point

Coming into her senior season with the Lady Bulldogs, Highland point guard Ellie Brown knew she had scored a lot of points during her career at HHS.

Just how many points she had scored, Brown wasn’t exactly sure but she knew something special might happen for her early in the season.

Brown got to enjoy and celebrate that special occasion Saturday, Nov. 26, during the Lady Bulldogs 57-19 win over Salem in the third game of the Salem Thanksgiving Tournament.

In the second quarter, Brown scored her 1,000th career point and, in the process, put herself into some select company among Lady Bulldogs players and into the Highland record books.

“It’s a pretty cool feeling to know there are some really great players that have played here, so to be up there with them is a pretty cool feeling,” Brown said.

It was a fast-break layup in the second quarter Brown put up and rolled in off the rim with a shooter’s touch that gave her the milestone bucket.

“We were kind of in a fast break situation, and I drove to the basket and shot kind of a right-hand layup, and it bounced around the rim a few times and went in,” Brown said.

When the shot dropped, Brown’s teammates, family, and friends celebrated as she scored two of her eight points in the game.

”I knew because everybody stood up and started throwing signs around and kind of embarrassed me a little bit, but it was good to know I was supported,” Brown said. “I know my mom and dad were proud of me, I don’t think I would have been able to do it without them.”

Excelling on the basketball court definitely runs in Brown’s family. Her father, Jeff, also had an outstanding career at Highland, eclipsing the 1,000 point plateau.

“It felt exciting (to hit the milestone) because I’ve been working toward this since I was a freshman in high school, and my dad told stories of when he played in high school and he reached his 1,000th point. And growing up I wanted to be just like him,” Brown said. “Growing up, basketball was always on and was always the thing to do.”

Lady Bulldogs coach Clint Hamilton was more than pleased to see his senior point guard achieve such a special milestone and believes it is an important part of her outstanding all-around floor game.

“She was about 35 points away (with 965 points) at the start of the season, and she knew she was kind of close. She came out the first game and made some shots for us and she kind of relaxed and that helps our team when she does that,” Hamilton said. “She’s had a great career obviously. She’s started four years for us and she’s a calming effect for the rest of the girls on the team having the ball in her hands pretty much the whole game, you can’t really quantify that on top of the scoring.”

Now that Brown, who is averaging a team-high more than 13 points a game so far, has passed 1,000 career points, she is looking to help her team move onto bigger and better things this winter.

“It’s a nice thing (to have it behind me) and now I can just focus in on what’ ahead and hopefully it’s all good things,” she said.