Mt. Abram senior Summer Ross dribbles while being guarded by Mountain Valley’s Avery Sevigny during a game played on Jan. 18. (Sun Journal file photo)

Mt. Abram senior Summer Ross struggled to speak in between her laughter when explaining her watershed moment.

She became one of the Roadrunners’ 1,000-point scorer against Madison — and that is something to smile about this season.

She needed 19 points to reach that milestone.

“I got four foul shots in the fourth or the end of third,” Ross said. “I don’t know how many I had to get and everybody was, like, jumping every shot so I must be close.”

Still, she was relieved from the pressure of reaching the plateau after having that in the back of her mind all season. She joins her father, Kirby, who was also a 1,000-point scorer for the Mt. Abram boys’ team.

“It’s feels crazy,” Ross said. “It’s relieving. I don’t know. I can’t think straight. There is no pressure at all.”

So what’s next for her after a fine career on the court and then graduation this spring.

“I want to go abroad somewhere my freshman (to study), but not basketball,” said Ross, who will attend college in the fall.

Mt. Abram coach Larry Donald was certainly proud of Ross.

“It was great. She has been waiting for this awhile and her father was a 1,000-point scorer, so now it is a father-daughter duo up on the wall at Mt. Abram,” Donald said. “She works for it.”

Martin’s Milestone

It was inevitable, but it certainly didn’t come easy.

High-scoring Gray-New Gloucester senior guard John Martin entered Friday night’s tilt with Greely just three points shy of 1,000 for his career. And with the way Martin can make 3-pointers, the question was when, not if, he would get to the milestone.

Patriots head coach Ryan Deschenes said they tried to run some early sets for Martin to see if they could get him a quick look, but otherwise Martin had to earn his points in the natural flow of a game that Greely led 6-0 to start.

“You know, obviously three points away, you feel that it’s going to happen,” Deschenes said.

It did happen, but not until three minutes into the second quarter on a long 3 (though not out of Martin’s range).

“It was definitely nerve-wracking,” Martin said. “I don’t know, there was a lot of hype around it. Everyone was talking about it all day at school. And, I don’t know, coming into the game I was really nervous, but I knew if I just play the game it’ll come to me, and I had to stay calm.”

Martin missed his first four shots (floater, pull-up jumper at the rim, 3, layup) but made a put-back of his layup miss to get within one of 1,000. His next shot got him over the milestone mark, to 1,002, but in between he had a couple of assists on plays that he could have forced for shots.

“The whole game (Greely players) were saying ‘We know who it’s going to, we know who it’s going to,'” Martin said. “So when I would drive, and they would collapse, I’d always find someone open. So yeah, I just found the open man.”

“He’s the ultimate team player. And that’s what we like about John,” Deschenes said. “He’s the best player in Class B, and he makes his teammates better. And he knows the right basketball decision.”

Both the rivalry and the inevitability of Martin’s milestone made it a capacity crowd in Gray. There were special “J-1K” shirts that the Gray-NG student section wore, while waving print-outs of Martin’s face. Patriots cheerleaders wore homemade “15” shirts, in honor of Martin’s jersey number. And after the milestone basket, the game was paused, and Martin was given the game ball by former Gray-NG girls’ player Maria Valente, who was the last Patriot to reach the milestone, in 2015.

Martin is the second Gray-NG boys’ player to score 1,000 points. Gary Hill was the first to do it in 1978.

Devils aren’t down

The Lewiston Blue Devils impressed Edward Little coach Mike Adams with their competitiveness and teamwork during his Red Eddies’ 79-62 win over their rival on Friday night.

“It’s a much more disciplined Lewiston team. They get good looks almost every time. They work together You can see what they’re trying to do offensively,” Adams said. “They’re not somebody I’d want to face in the first round.”

The loss, their second of the season in the Battle of the Bridge, dropped the Blue Devils to 2-12, so barring a complete turnaround over the final four games, its likely a No. 1 seed will encounter Lewiston in the AA North quarterfinals.

Despite its struggles, coach Tim Farrar credited his team’s pluck and focus on improving while navigating a very difficult schedule that includes not only the ultra-competitive AA North, where the other seven teams in the region are at or above .500, but AA South contenders Thornton Academy and Gorham.

Lewiston’s two wins have been over Class A tournament-bound teams Brunswick and Mt. Blue.

“We have battled just about every night,” Farrar said. “Obviously, our record is not where we want it to be. We could be frustrated, but I’m hoping the last four games, we can replicate (Friday’s game). We moved the ball as well as we have this year. We hit some shots because of that. We got it inside. We need some more stops (on defense).”

“(The schedule) made us have to be tougher. We’re coming out on the other side of it a little bit now. I think our toughness is starting to show,” he said.

Farrar and the Devils hope it starts showing up in the win column more frequently during a difficult final four games against Scarborough, Mt. Ararat, Oxford Hills and Leavitt.