WEST SPRINGFIELD — Lauraine Joensen only needed one touch on one possession to pass the 1,000-point threshold.
The Northampton senior entered Friday night’s game at West Springfield with 999 career points.
Northampton’s Megan McCarthy won the tip and gave the ball to freshman point guard Amanda Mieczkowski. The Blue Devils passed the ball around the 3-point line briefly before Mieczkowski found McCarthy in the high post.
She passed to Joensen in the low post, who was shielding three defenders. Joensen turned and shot over all three, none of whom were taller than her shoulders. The shot bounced off the back iron once and back rim another time before dropping through.
“We hadn’t discussed it at all,” Joensen said. “I kind of wanted the ball.”
Only 16 seconds had passed since the game started, but the clock stopped and Joensen received two bunches of flowers and a game ball.
“Congratulations to Lauraine,” Northampton coach Perry Messer said. “It’s impressive to do it in three years.”
Joensen’s family moved from Denmark to Northampton when her father opened a business in town when she was a sophomore. She’s the 11th player to score 1,000 points for Northampton and first since Jake Ross in 2014.
“It was better to get it early on compared to late since the game didn’t go as well as I would have hoped for,” said Joensen, who finished with 10 points in the game.
Northampton lost 54-43 after leading 39-36 after three quarters. The victory qualified the Terriers for the postseason.
“They just totally outplayed us tonight,” Messer said. “We didn’t make enough effort. How many layups did we miss? How many free throws?”
The Blue Devils missed seven free throws in the game and two in the fourth quarter. West Springfield (10-9, 1-6 Valley League) outscored Northampton 18-4 in the final frame.
Northampton still led for the majority of the fourth quarter until Madison Conway hit a 3-pointer with 2 minutes, 37 seconds remaining to go up 45-43. She finished with six 3s and a game-high 20 points.
“We knew who their 3-point shooters were, we didn’t want to go out and guard them,” Messer said.
Conway hit five of her six 3s in the second half as West Side was making its comeback. Northampton (12-6, 2-4 Valley League) led by as many as nine points after opening the third quarter on a 7-0 run to take a 33-24 lead with 4:32 left.
That was the Blue Devils’ second extended run of the game. They trailed 14-3 early on after allowing a 14-1 run following Joensen’s 1,000th point.
Northampton outscored West Springfield 16-2 and re-took a 19-18 lead with 3:57 to go until halftime when freshman Sydney Lewandowski stuck in a putback after an offensive board.
The teams stayed close until the Terriers closed the game out.
“I think we didn’t have the mental focus to keep up the work,” Joensen said. “The will to play wasn’t there tonight.”
The Blue Devils have lost three games in a row, all to Valley League teams.
They visit Lonmeadow on Monday before closing out the regular season against Holyoke at home Wednesday.
“You’ve got to look deep in your soul and say ‘should I be making two-footers, four-footers? Attacking the glass with a little bit of confidence? Can I play a little tougher on defense and stop somebody?’” Messer said. “There’s a lot of thing we’ve got to look at.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.