Central's Kuster Surpasses 1,000 In Stellar Senior Night Performance

(Photos: Katelyn Kuster with coach John Truhan; Central seniors Jackie Bobinski, Adriana DeJesus and Kuster with Truhan; Kuster hits her first of nine 3-pointers in the game; Kuster drives for the milestone. Teammates mob Kuster after she hits 1,000. Credits: Karen Wall)

Katelyn Kuster said she wasn’t thinking about reaching the 1,000-point milestone when she and the Central Regional Golden Eagles took the floor Tuesday night against Barnegat.

Needing 28 points to reach the mark, “I went into the game figuring it wasn’t going to happen,” Kuster said, “that I’d just do it on Friday at Donovan.”

Then she dropped in a 3-pointer from the top of the arc on her first shot of the game, a shot so smooth it looked like she was playing a game of H-O-R-S-E. Her second shot, another 3, swished just as neatly, and even the crowd knew the night had special written all over it.

“When the second one went in, I thought, ‘Well, maybe,’ “ Kuster said.

”Maybe” turned into definitely very quickly, and on the night when she and senior teammates Jackie Bobinski and Adriana DeJesus marked their last game in the Central gym with a 67-38 victory over Barnegat, Kuster made it a night to remember, becoming the sixth girls basketball player in school history to eclipse 1,000 with a 41-point night that included a school-record 9 3-pointers.

Kuster reached the mark 15 seconds into the second half, when she put a layup in to give Central a 38-21 lead. She becomes the second Central player under the tenure of coach John Truhan to reach the mark, following Rachel Iozzia, who finished with 1,103 in 2013.

Kuster’s feat also came just four days after she and dozens of Central Regional supporters watched point guard Evan Lang of the boys team score his 1,000th career point on the road at Manchester. It is the first time in school history that both the boys and girls teams have had 1,000-point scorers in the same season.

“She (Kuster) is without question the best individual player I’ve ever coached,” Truhan said, adding she is the first player he’s had score more than 40 points in a game.

“I never expected to do this,” Kuster said, reflecting back to freshman year. “I saw her (Iozzia) get it and I thought, ‘Wow, I really want to do that.’ “

It wasn’t just Kuster who was on a mission Tuesday night, however, as the Eagles (12-7) ran set after set to get the ball into her hands. By the end of the first quarter, she had 11 points, and with 2 minutes to go until halftime she had 23. When she swished yet another 3 with just under a minute to go it looked like she was going to finish it off before halftime. But a 3 at the buzzer bounced off the rim.

“That one I just kind of threw up there,” she said. “I didn’t really expect it to go in. I wasn’t worried about getting it before halftime. I knew I was going to get it.”

Central opened the second half with the ball, and Bobinski inbounded to Sam Wilber, who got the ball to Kuster. Kuster rounded the top of the key and drove down the left side, tossing the ball softly up for a layup that set off the celebration. Wilber finished with 12 assists, Truhan said.

“We usually sit on the bench during the JV game, me, Kuster, Jackie and Adriana, and hang out, stay loose,” Truhan said. “You could just tell she was really loose tonight.”

“I had two photos ready to go,” Truhan said, “one with today’s date and one with Friday’s just in case. I’m glad it happened tonight. It was a great family atmosphere.”

Kuster said she was glad to have reached the milestone against Barnegat, not only because it was her last home game.

“Now I don’t have to worry about it on Friday,” she said. “Now we can just focus on the game.”

And it’s a big one: Friday, the Golden Eagles play Donovan Catholic with the Shore Conference Class B South title on the line. The Griffins have beaten Central twice this season; by double digits in the WOBM Christmas Classic, but by just three points when the teams faced off three weeks ago.

“As a team, we’re really young,” Kuster said. In addition to the three seniors, the primary rotation includes sophomores Wilber and Alexis Monguso, and freshmen Lex Holloway and Halie Bondulich. That much youth can be a recipe for disaster, but Kuster said the team has pulled together.

“We’re jelling now,” she said.

With the Shore Conference and NJSIAA tournaments yet ahead, the Golden Eagles seem to be coming together at just the right time.

See video of Kuster’s milestone layup below, courtesy of Alvin Fair.