St. Edward star hits milestone

Brooke Biggins didn't want to go into her senior season with 999 points.

She almost did.

The St. Edward junior guard had a chance to reach the 1,000-point milestone in the Green Wave's final game of the season Friday night against Riverside-Brookfield.

Biggins needed 22 points to reach 1,000, and late in the fourth quarter of St. Edward's 58-46 loss, she had 21.

Teammates tried to get Biggins the ball several times but none of her shots would fall. Finally, with time ticking down, Ari Franco found Biggins, who took a short step back jumper from the right baseline and sank the shot, giving her the 1,000th point with just 2 seconds left in the game.

"The first thing I said to her was thank goodness you don't have this hanging over your head all summer," St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson said. "She struggled like all kids do when they get really close. Everybody is like we have to get it to her."

Franco did just that, and Biggins was relieved to see the shot go in.

"It was really insane honestly," Biggins said. "My teammates were just there for me and Ari had the most amazing pass I could have ever asked for. I just drove and I had faith in myself. I went up with it and it went in and I couldn't have asked for a better team, a better coach to help me reach this milestone and I'm so grateful to them."

Biggins became the 15th St. Edward player to reach 1,000. Dawson has coached seven of them.

Katie Yohn leads the way with 1,812 points.

"For Brooke to do it her junior year is exciting because there's more to come," Dawson said. "Brooke is very dynamic in her ability to score. Her athleticism is so much fun to watch the way she is able to alter other people's shots. Her game was always a lot of slashing and wanting to go to the basket and she's really worked hard in the offseason to develop more of a true jump shot that is really hard to defend. She's added more to her toolbox here and that's added to her success."

Having such an exciting end to the season meant a lot to Biggins, especially in such a difficult year. St. Edward bounced back from an 0-5 start to finish 6-7.

Her dad brought a banner Friday to celebrate afterward.

"This year has been crazy," Biggins said. "It was a nice cherry on top of a terrible year.

"I was grateful for the time, at least we had the season. I knew we had to really step up. We had a rough start to the season but we all started picking each other up and running with it."

Biggins is hoping to play college basketball. Dawson is glad to have her one more season, one that Biggins is already looking forward to as a leader to the eighth-graders who will be joining the program.

"She' very comfortable, always positive and a good example on the court to all her teammates," Dawson said.

"We had a little bit of a rough start but they really turned it around."