Boling’s Malone scores 1,500th point

Boling assistant coach Chris Burrow grabbed a microphone and announced to the assembled crowd that Malone had just reached 1,500 points, promoting cheers from both sides of the stands.

“When everyone stood up, I got a little emotional, if I’m being honest,” Malone said. “Just to see the whole crowd watching us and me achieve (this milestone) at that moment was really cool.”

At midcourt, Malone stood with the rest of her teammates and coaches as fans on the home stands stood, cheered and held small signs with the number 1,500 printed on them.

Following the game, Malone credited her teammates over the years to help her far surpass her goal of 1,000 points that she had when entering high school.

“I overachieved that goal and it wouldn’t be possible without all my teammates and their amazing assists and all their passes and the way they helped (over the years),” Malone said.

While the Lady Bulldogs don’t have all of Malone’s rebounding stats from her freshman season, in games they have calculated, she has more than 1,000 rebounds in her career as well. It’s likely safe to save she’s closer to 1,500 rebounds when considering missing rebound stats.

Malone last season eclipsed 1,000 points without even knowing. Toward the end of last season, a few of the players asked coach Jonathan Gibson if he knew how many points they had racked up over the years. He didn’t know, but started adding up the games and told Malone if everything goes well, she’ll break 1,500 as a senior.

“I was so shocked to find out (I had 1,000), but then I knew I could go even high,” Malone said.

As a freshman, Malone scored 211 points and, despite a COVID-shortened season her sophomore year, she scored 315 points. The Boling post really came into her own with 524 points last season, with more than 10 20-point games, doubling what she did the previous two years. With five district games remaining and the playoffs, Malone is already at 462 points.

As a post player with only a handful of threes over her career, Malone’s inside game is what grew the most since her freshman year.

“I really learned how to post up and ask for the ball,” Malone said. “I really learned how to use my body and how to get rebounds off the three-pointers that people shoot and just how to man the paint.

She is considering her options, but Malone plans to play college basketball when her high school career is over.

While the moment was special for Malone, her night wasn’t done, scoring 24 points in the Lady Bulldogs’ 101-20 over Hempstead to move Boling to 6-1 on the season.

The Lady Bulldogs led from start to finish as their offense and defense were too much for Hempstead. At one point they jumped out to a 51-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Hempstead didn’t reach 10 points until the fourth quarter as the Bulldogs sunk them with 11 made threes’ for their second game in a row. Against Hempstead, the Lady Bulldogs were led in scoring by junior Savannah Savage, who had 28 points.