Albano goes over 2,000 in Trinity win

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Monica Albano just watched the most agonizing three minutes of her high school career pass by.

Then in a flash, she achieved a significant personal milestone. The Trinity guard scored 23 points to power the Blazers to a 62-33 romp past North Lawndale in the Class 3A Orr Sectional semifinal Monday night.

The layup put Albano in elite company as she reached 2,001 points for her career. “I got it and I’m relieved,” she said. “It’s a great achievement, but I’m glad it’s over with.”

The Loyola-bound guard needed 22 points to reach the magic 2,000 figure. She scored 16 points in the first half to power the Blazers to a 30-11 advantage at the break. She scored eight points in the first quarter to fuel a 14-2 push that put Trinity (28-3) up 16-5 at the end of the first quarter.

Sophomore guard TaRicka Linzy added 16 points for the Blazers, which had 11 different players score. Junior guard Ebone Green scored nine points to lead the Phoenix (14-12). Sophomore Ashley Fancher and senior Cassandra Baker added eight points apiece.

The Blazers advance to play the winner of the Marshall-Crane game on Thursday.

Albano missed her first five jump shots, including four three-point attempts. “Like a lot of shooters, if the outside shot is not there, I wanted to get something going to the basket or possibly get fouled,” she said.

She found her stroke at the start of the second quarter. She drilled two three-pointers to push the Blazers out to a 27-9 lead late in the second quarter. She nailed her third three-pointer at the start of the third quarter.

Seconds later, she scored on a layup and was fouled. Needing just a free throw to reach the 2,000-point total, Albano missed the free throw. To make matters worse, she missed three consecutive free throws over the next 2 1/2 minutes.

“It was on my mind, our coach [Ed Stritzel] said in a time out they were going to run a special play for me,” she said. “I wanted to get it on a free throw.”

She scored her final points on the layup off a steal with 2:36 to play in the third quarter.

“Monica means so much to our program,” Stritzel said. “She’s a very humble, quiet kid. The rest of the girls love her so much and it was important to them, but Monica did not like all the attention.

“She’s going to end up Trinity’s all-time leader in scoring, steals and assists.”