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caption, page 3:
Celebration
Putnam Science Academy basketball teammates help Yamani McCollough, #1, celebrate her 1,000th career point. Courtesy photo.
McCollough
scores 1,000th
career point
The Putnam Science Academy girls’ basketball teams had a get together Feb. 21 to celebrate Yamani McCollough, who scored her 1,000th career point earlier in the day.
“It was real funny,” said teammate Sade Young, “because a lot of the younger kids were sitting around talking about how many points they had last game and how many they have in their career now, and talking about ‘I hope I can get 1,000 points someday.’ It’s a big number and it’s a celebration for a reason.”
McCollough played her first three years of high school ball at Notre Dame-Fairfield—– where she scored 973 points — before transferring to PSA for this, her senior season. She dropped 18 in the Mustangs’ season-opening win Feb. 11, leaving her nine short heading into Feb. 21.
She got seven in the first quarter and actually had a chance for the magic numbers, but her layup at the buzzer went astray, leaving her teammates waiting to celebrate just a little longer. With just over a minute gone by in the second quarter though, McCollough inbounded along the baseline to teammate Ciara Bailey in the short corner, then raced to the same corner and got the ball back from Bailey. McCollough put it up from behind the 3-point line, and when it swished through the net, the celebration was on.
“Honestly, it feels amazing,” she said. “People in my family have scored 1,000 points and it feels amazing to be part of that club. I’ve worked hard, and during the shutdown I really spent a lot of time working on parts of my game that I felt were weaknesses. And to get the opportunity to do this during a pandemic, I’m grateful, really. I appreciate that I got to score my 1,000th point because it would have hurt to know that I’m this close and then, just because, it gets taken away.”
The game was stopped after the make, and McCollough was presented with a game ball, flowers and balloons, and a commemorative PSA sweatshirt before posing for pictures with her teammates and coaches.
Then she went out and scored 10 more points in the quarter, giving her 20 for the half; she finished the game with 21 to go with six assists in the Mustangs’ 82-23 rout of Cheshire Academy.
“That’s the thing I love most about playing with her, she plays hard all the time,” Young said. “She needed nine points and got it, but she kept playing hard and pressuring on defense and getting steals and finished with 21. In a 40-point game, she already had the 1,000, she’s playing way up trying to get steals. That’s how she is, she just plays like every game is her last.”
Said assistant coach Jasmyne Fogle: “She always plays hard, always plays aggressively at both ends of the floor. She’s quick, she’s athletic, and she gets hot and can score a lot of points quickly, obviously.”
As for the game itself, it wasn’t much of one. The Mustangs dominated throughout, holding Cheshire without a field goal until early in the fourth quarter. Bailey matched McCollough’s 21 points and also pulled down seven rebounds, Kristina Goncharuk had 13 points, Fatim Sarr Ndow had seven points and nine rebounds, and Sade Young added seven points, six assists, and three steals for the Mustangs (2-0).
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy
.