Girls Basketball: Clippers’ Tabor breaks 1,000-point mark
Maddy Tabor did it.
The 5-foot-2 senior, the shortest player on the Southold/Greenport high school girls basketball team, came up big, turning Senior Night into Maddy Tabor Night at Southold High School. Tabor became recognized Tuesday night as the first Greenport girl to score 1,000 career points.
Needing 18 points to reach that milestone, Tabor scored 21 in leading Southold to a 54-12 trouncing of Smithtown Christian.
Tabor had 15 points by halftime. She missed her first four shots in the third quarter — all three-point attempts — before delighting the home crowd with what it had been waiting for. Shooting from the wing, Tabor let go another three-point shot that bounced straight up off the rim before falling in 3 minutes, 1 second into the quarter.
The buzzer sounded and the game was halted as Tabor happily jumped into the arms of her excited teammates. She was presented with the basketball, a plaque and balloons as fans chanted: “Maddy! Maddy! Maddy!”
Thousand-point scorers are an elite group. Only two Southold girls, for example, have broken the 1,000-point mark — Betsy Van Bourgondien in 2002 and Amanda Capone in 2006.
Tabor, who took a 19.5 points average into the game, opened the contest with a layup six seconds in and knocked down a three-pointer from the top of the key not long after that. But she had to work at scoring her points, shooting 8 for 34 from the field and 5 for 19 on three-point attempts. She did not have a free throw.
Tabor’s 15 first-half points helped Southold (9-9, 7-8 Suffolk County League VII) to a 26-6 lead late in the second quarter.
Tabor was brought to the bench with 4:00 left in the third quarter. She re-entered, along with three other seniors for a final hurrah before the home crowd with 1:54 to go in the game. A late triple by Tabor provided the game’s final points and put her over the 1,000 mark.
Ten Clippers scored, including Katie Tuthill with eight points and Grace Syron with seven. Southold held a commanding 47-26 advantage in rebounds.
Dorothy Pierre had eight points and 10 rebounds for Smithtown Christian (0-16, 0-15).
Tabor, a four-year varsity player, was recognized along with Southold’s four other seniors during a pregame ceremony: Samantha Baldwin, Toni Esposito, Angelica Klavas and Tuthill. Esposito watched the game in street clothes from the scorer’s table. Coach Skip Gehring said Esposito is out indefinitely with a kidney infection.
In order to qualify for the playoffs, Southold must win its final regular-season game Friday night at Stony Brook. When those teams played on Jan. 10, Southold was a 60-39 winner.
Photo caption: Southold/Greenport’s new 1,000-point scorer, Maddy Tabor, sat in front of her coaches and teammates for photos following the win over Smithtown Christian. (Credit: Bob Liepa)
