XENIA — Legacy Christian’s girls basketball team has a saying: “The best of me for we.”
But on Monday it was all about senior Kathleen Ahner and justifiably so.
The multi-talented point guard scored her 1,000th career point in a 42-41 win over Carlisle, not only joining an elite club of 1,000-point scorers — she is one of seven at Legacy — but also becoming the first player for Legacy/Xenia Christian to record 400 rebounds, 300 assists, and 200 steals to go with 1,000 points. The other three milestones happened in a Jan. 2 win over the Cincinnati Trailblazers.
“This has definitely been in the back of my mind,” Ahner said by phone Tuesday. “I was happy that I was able to do it at home in front of our home fans. It was a special night.”
The magical shot came on a 3-pointer from, as Coach Mark Combs put it, “downtown Xenia” and caused a raucous cheer inside the Legacy gym as everyone reacted to the special moment.
Well, almost everyone.
“It kind of took me a minute to kind of realize what had actually happened,” Ahner said. “I knew that I was pretty close to it. The first thing I saw was (teammate) Emma Hess sprinting over to me and I was like ‘Oh wait, that just happened.’ Definitely did take me a second. I was just kind of like, ‘Wow. I finally got there.’ ”
It’s no surprise that the points plateau was the final piece of the foursome of feats.
“This is a kid that could have scored 1,000 a lot earlier,” Combs said. “(But) what you saw is the progression of a point guard who did everything on everyone’s behalf except score. It says so much about the completeness of her game.”
Hence “The best of me for we” mantra.
“What’s in my (mind’s) forefront is just winning,” Ahner said. “I’ve always just focused on whatever I can do to let our team win. Doing whatever needs to be done. I’ve been trying to be a well-rounded point guard.”
As she was getting close to 1,000 points, Combs made sure Ahner stayed on the top of her game and didn’t let the pursuit of points interfere.
“We were talking about it a week or so ago,” he said. “I just reminded her, ‘You know Kathleen, you are the typical great point guard. Pretty much your whole career you’ve eaten last.’ ”
On Monday Ahner had quite the feast.
