Normally when a player achieves a major milestone, it comes toward the end of a successful career.
On the other hand, when Rosary center Jordan Rettig notched her 1,000th point, she can take comfort in knowing she has a lot of basketball left to play for the Royals. After all, she is only a junior.
Rettig netted 21 points and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead host Rosary to a 41-16 rout over archrival Aurora Central Catholic on Tuesday.
Rosary improved to 13-3 overall and 3-2 in the Suburban Catholic Conference. The Royals' three losses have come to teams with two losses combined: unbeaten Geneva and Driscoll, and twice-beaten Montini.
Rettig needed only one point to reach 1,000 coming into the game. But she got off to a slow start, missing two shots and a pair of free throws in the early going. Then, with 4:41 left in the first quarter, she rebounded her own miss and scored on a put-back, also converting the three-point play for good measure. The game ball was presented to her at that time, possibly for preservation in a trophy case.
"I was thinking about it (the point mark) too much -- it hit me right when the game started," said Rettig, laughing about her slow start. "It was really kind of embarrassing. As a team, we struggled both on offense and defense, so we really need to step it up."
Aurora Central's Blythe Nelson (four points) tied the score at 4 with a put-back shortly after Rettig's big basket. But the Royals responded with four straight baskets (three by Stephanie Haugen, who had all 10 of her points in the first half) to finish the quarter and never were challenged after that.
Rosary's lead grew to 25-5 at halftime as the Chargers made two of 13 shots from the field in the first two periods. Rettig, who is averaging 18 points and 10 rebounds per game, had 15 points at the break.
Like most teams that play Rosary, the Chargers had ball control issues. They committed 33 turnovers as a result of Rosary's full-court pressure and tight man-to-man defense. Aurora Central guards Michelle DiSimone and Sanya Steder (four points) played hard against relentless pressure but had few scoring options to go to on the front line.
Katie Petrando (recovering from the flu) and Katie Eckberg (coming back from an ankle injury) played limited minutes for Rosary, but their usual output was not needed.
Rosary coach Dave Beebe said his team's sometimes sloppy play may have been a result of over two weeks without game action, but he didn't use that as an excuse seeing as the Chargers had a layoff as well.
"Aurora Central played hard and I don't want to take anything away from them, but we missed more shots today than we did the last two games combined," Beebe said. "We'll have to play better Friday and next week or we'll be in trouble."
The Chargers (3-9, 0-3) are experiencing growing pains after combining to win two games in the last two years. Coach Mark Fitzgerald is confident that better times are ahead for his program.
"I told the girls that this program (Rosary) is where we want to get to," he said. Rosary 41, Aurora Central Catholic 16
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