Rishty tallies 1,000th career point in Senecas' tourney romp

After eight minutes Wednesday night, the question went from would Calvert beat Vanlue in a Division IV tournament opener to ... is Alyssa Rishty going to get her 1,000th career point? After a 16-4 first quarter and a 35-12 first half, the game with the Wildcats played second fiddle to Rishty's achievement. What was a little strange was that the game was well in hand (57-14) and most of the second half was played with a running clock. That made the decision by Calvert coach Aaron Sheets to keep her in the game an interesting one as she hunted for that milestone."(Sheets) asked me if I wanted to get it in the fourth quarter and I told him yes because I wanted to get this done before heading into Mohawk Saturday. I wanted that to be our main focus," Rishty said after notching her 1,000th point on the very last basket of the game with 27.9 ticks left in a 65-21 rout. "I didn't want to care about points when we play them. I wanted to get it out of the way tonight."With practice every day and I also work with Judge (Jay) Meyer out of practice – like last night we were in here until 8:30-9 p.m. – just working, so I could achieve my goals. Big thanks to him, but there's a lot of work and dedication that goes into something like this."As mostly JV players were in the game for the Senecas (14-8) in the fourth, Rishty was playing 1 on 5 for a lot of it trying to get that last point. Thankfully, she swiped a steal and finished the night with the milestone as her team notched their 13th win in their last 16 games. Simply put, the Senecas are rolling."She needed 29 to get it coming into tonight and she had 12 at halftime and I told her that she had the third quarter to try and get it," Sheets said. "Then to start the fourth, she's four away from it, so I pull all the starters out and with the running clock for the last two quarters, it was tough. It's not how I wanted to do it, but I kept asking my assistant coaches three or four times and my AD one time, and I asked Alyssa a few times. I've always been a player's coach and I want to hear other people's opinions."Normally I pull her, but it's our last home game and we wanted to get it over with. We just wanted to focus on Mohawk, but the girls played hard and the girls really wanted her to get it too. I'm proud of what the girls are doing. We got down 4-2 early and then went on an 18-0 run and from that point, I pretty much knew we had it."The Wildcats (5-18) led 4-2 after a bucket from Lexi Brooks, but then Calvert freshman Kate Coleman scored the next six points, Rishty scored four points, Kaleigh Concepcion hit a jumper and Brooklyn Brown made a layup to end the first period.Rishty really got going in the second with back-to-back 3-pointers to give her squad a 26-6 lead and then a three-point play from Coleman and a Megan Rombach buzzer beater ended the first half with Calvert up big.The defensive pressure was too much for Vanlue to handle, especially in the first half. It committed 30 turnovers in the game – 16 of those in the first quarter alone."Yeah, they've gotten better … no doubt," Vanlue coach Shawn Ginnan said about the Senecas after topping them early in the season 49-46. "Our goal was to keep (Rishty) under control. We tried to run the triangle, but (Coleman) got loose a few times and I think it was (Brown) too where we didn't rotate well enough. Some girls we didn't think would hit shots, hit shots and we felt pretty good about trusting the game plan, but then Rishty hit two 3s and we had to take it off."They really sped us up. We don't like to play out of our comfort zone and that's something we have to keep working on and develop. By far that was the difference in the ballgame."Brooks led the Wildcats with nine points. Backing Rishty for Calvert were Coleman with 15 points, Concepcion with eight points and Brown with seven points.The Senecas will travel to Sycamore to take on the Warriors (14-8) Saturday at 7 p.m. "They start four seniors and Mia Miller will be the best true post player we play all year," Sheets said about the matchup. "They have (Josie) Granata running point, but she plays all around … they have two really good players that really impressed me. They like to shoot the 3 and they play in a good league. Their record is definitely deceiving. They're impressive, so we have to come with our 'A' game if we want to beat them. We're looking forward to it. Our goal is to make it to districts … we've only had one sectional title in school history so." Calvert 65, Vanlue 21Vanlue (5-18): Adrienne Phillips 1-0-2; Olivia Secord 1-0-2; Candace Saltzman 2-0-4; Mara Simon 1-0-2; Alison Brooks 1-0-2; Madison Brooks 0-0-0; Lexi Brooks 3-3-9. Totals: 9-3-21.Calvert (14-8): Brooklyn Brown 3-0-7; Kaleigh Concepcion 4-0-8; Alyssa Rishty 11-5-29; Megan Rombach 1-0-2; Breanna Ronski 0-0-0; Carleigh Meier 1-0-2; Aubrey Sheets 0-0-0; Izzi Jones 1-0-2; Kate Coleman 6-3-15; Sofie Lee 0-0-0. Totals: 27-8-65.Vanlue&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;– 21Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;19&emsp;&emsp;22&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;– 65Field goals: Vanlue 9; Calvert 273-point goals: Vanlue 0; Calvert 3 (Rishty 2, Brown)Foul shots: Vanlue 3-10; Calvert 8-13Turnovers: Vanlue 30, Calvert 9