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Top Sports Stories 2017: Tabor eclipses 1,000 career points

For one night, Maddy Tabor was the toast of the town. That was when Senior Night for the Southold/Greenport high school girls basketball team turned into Maddy Tabor Night at Southold High School.

That was the night Tabor became a career 1,000-point scorer, the first Greenport girl to reach that milestone. The 5-2 guard — the shortest player on the team — needed 18 points that night against Smithtown Christian in order to hit 1,000. That moment came 3 minutes, 1 second into the third quarter when a three-point shot bounced straight up off the rim before falling in.

Tabor said: “I was like, ‘I did it! Finally, I did it!’ ”

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!”

“It was kind of unreal,” said Tabor.

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.

A consummate hustler well-suited to the fast-paced game, with a knack for turning steals into layups, Tabor finished her four-year career with 1,036 points. She averaged 18 points per game her senior season.

Tabor, who also played field hockey, was named the Greenport Female Athlete of the Year by The Suffolk Times for the second time in three years. She became the sixth Greenport girl to win the honor twice in the 33-year history of the awards.

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