Vliet joins Rolling Meadows’ 1,000 club

When she was a freshman on the varsity four years ago, Jenny Vliet said her primary focus on the floor was to not make a mistake.

Four years later, there is no mistaking Vliet’s ability as one of the top players in the state.

During the Mustangs’ 60-24 win over Wheeling on Friday night, Vliet joined exclusive state company when she took a pass from Jackie Kemph with 5:56 left in the third quarter and scored on a fastbreak layup.

It marked the 1,000th point of her career, placing Vliet in the same company as teammates Kemph and Alexis Glasgow, who reached the magic number exactly one week earlier.

It couldn’t have been more appropriate that Kemph assisted on all 4 of Vliet’s baskets which helped lead to the 6-foot-2 guard-forward’s 10 points for the game.

“I’ve got to give a lot of the credit to my point guard,” Vliet said, referring to Kemph, who scored 16 points while handing out 9 assists.

“Jackie has been assisting me since second grade. And we still have four more years to go. We can keep going.”

They will keep going at St. Louis University.

“Jenny definitely deserves it,” Kemph said. “She works harder than anyone on the team. It’s good to see her be recognized for scoring points because she does so many other things, too. She’s awesome for us.”

The Mustangs (8-1, 2-0) built a 39-4 halftime lead on Wheeling, which was without the services of high-scoring all-area junior guard Deanna Kuzmanic. The Alabama-Birmingham recruit will be cleared from a concussion today. Starting junior guard Hannah Dobrowski also played less than a half because of recent illness.

Glasgow (three 3-pointers) scored all of her game-high 17 points in the first half as the Wildcats (5-5, 1-1) used a spread-out offense to try and slow down the Mustangs’ high-flying attack.

“We are all very proud of Jenny,” said the Northwestern-bound Glasgow, who also had a pair of assists. “It’s pretty amazing we have three players (with 1,000 points). It emphasizes that we are a team and play for team goals. It shows we are unselfish.”

Senior forward Katie Shewmon led the Mustangs on the boards with 7 rebounds while Vliet and Ashley Montanez each had 4.

Rebounding was a focal point for the Mustangs, who were coming off a 54-40 loss to Whitney Young in which they were decisively out-rebounded.

“We came out with an edge to our rebounding because after that game a lot of people speculated that we might not be the real deal,” Glasgow said. “But we wanted to come out this game and play like we were the best team in the state.”

Wheeling junior Lani Greenberg played another solid, scoring a team-high 11 points.

“Lani is definitely stepping up big,” said Wheeling coach Julissa Hernandez. “It seems like when we need an offensive threat she steps up and fills that role.”

The Wildcats outscored Meadows 13-7 in the final quarter, getting all their points at the free throw line (13-of-17).

“Obviously the first three quarters hurt us,” Hernandez said. “We did what we could do.”

Vliet did what she has been doing for four years — excelling at all parts of the game.

But on this night, it was her scoring that put her in the spotlight.

“It’s awesome for Jenny to reach that milestone because she is the consummate team player,” said Mustangs coach Ryan Kirkorsky. “She does all the dirty work for us, and is our best rebounder. And she brings that same energy to practice every day.”

And now the Mustangs will have a pretty rare occurrence — a trio of 1,000-poiint scorers in practice every day.