Batavia's Frazier reaches 1,000-point milestone

Hannah Frazier walked out of Batavia's locker room Saturday at Oswego's Hoops for the Troops with a bucket filled with 1,000 gum balls.

It might take awhile for Frazier to chew all that gum - perhaps even longer than it took her to put her name in the Batavia record books.

The junior reached the 1,000-point milestone Saturday, doing it in style with 31 of her team's 42 points in a 47-42 loss to Rich South (10-2) in the tournament's fifth-place game.

Frazier is just the fifth player in Batavia history to reach 1,000 points, and she got there faster than any of the previous four.

"It's not really a personal thing, it's a team thing," said Frazier, whose parents and grandparents were on hand. "You can't score without your teammates passing you the ball. It's pretty exciting."

Frazier didn't waste any time reaching the milestone. Defensively, she had steals when Rich South tried to pass inside on its first two possessions.

Her 1,000th point came with 4:25 left in the first quarter when she reached high for an offensive rebound and scored on a putback while getting fouled.

Frazier had a big smile on her face while she went to the line to complete the three-point play. The public address announcer congratulated Frazier while the Batavia fans and teammates cheered.

"She's a stud," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "Probably other than the Marian Catholic game she's been the best player on the floor every single game. I don't think she gets treated that way but she is. She's usually the biggest and strongest and best player on the floor. It's a matter of what we can do around her to get her opportunities to continue to flourish because everybody is going to start putting three around her."

Frazier joins Liza Fruendt, Katie Issel, Kelly Pollard and Natalie Tarter in Batavia's 1,000-point club. Fruendt leads with 1,921 points, but Frazier actually is ahead of her pace.

Fruendt's 1,000th point came in the 22nd game of her junior year, Frazier's in her 14th.

"That's not my focus," Frazier said of breaking the record or getting to 2,000. "Liza, the amount of work she put in, that's motivation for me. She set a great example, keep working hard."

Frazier didn't let up after getting to 1,000. She finished the first quarter with 10 points as Batavia (6-8) led 13-7, and by halftime she had 18 to put Batavia ahead 24-16.

The Bulldogs got baskets from Frazier, Shea Bayram and a Bethany Orman 3-pointer to open the third quarter strong.

But ahead 33-23 at that point the game gradually got away from Batavia, who was outscored 21-4 spanning the final four minutes of the third and first six of the fourth as Rich South took its first lead of the game.

Frazier was the only Batavia player to score in the fourth quarter.

"We did a lot of things we wanted to do correctly," Jensen said. "Just frustrated we couldn't quite hold on at the end."

Frazier entered the game averaging 22.6 points and 11.2 rebounds a game and finished with 31 and 14. She also made 14 of her 22 field goal attempts while the rest of the team combined for 4 of 27.

Saturday was her fifth 30-plus point game this year.

"In the first half we played really well, our defense especially," Frazier said. "Even though we didn't come out with a win I'm proud of the way we played today."

Orman added 6 points on a pair of 3-pointers. Dasia Evans led Rich South with 15 points.