Spartans' Blumenfeld overcomes 2 ACL tears to score 1,000th point of her HS basketball career
It's hard to keep Brooke Blumenfeld down.
Neither a pair of ACL tears nor a determined Evanston defense were able to stop the Glenbrook North forward from scoring the 1,000th point of her high school basketball career.
The Northern Illinois University recruit surpassed the landmark Jan. 28 on the road. Using an Abby Burnham ball screen, Blumenfeld drove down the right side of the lane. Surrounded by three Wildkits, Blumenfeld delivered a running, right-handed hook shot from a sharp angle that glanced in off the backboard.
It was a precision shot that earned her 1,001st point in her 72nd varsity game.
"When I hit the layup, it was over the 6-5 girl (Ciara Gentle). It actually was a great shot for me. I've been working on that shot," Blumenfeld said.
A 6-foot-1 senior, Blumenfeld had heard Evanston had "a plan" not to allow her to reach 1,000. The odds were against the plan working since Blumenfeld's 23 points in a 52-40 win over Maine West on Jan. 23 left her just 8 points shy of the mark. She averages around 18 points.
"After I did it, one of Evanston's players said, 'Our plan didn't really work out,'" Blumenfeld said.
"That means I did something," she said, though Evanston did as well, winning the Central Suburban League South game, 44-26.
Kelly Collins' 1,495 points remains the Glenbrook North girls standard. Among Spartans boys, Jon Scheyer's 3,034 points ranks fourth all-time on Illinois High School Association records.
Maine East senior center Emina Hanic stood at 1,171 points entering this week. Among boys, Glenbrook South's Nick Martinelli and Cooper Noard each have surpassed 1,000 points this season.
Like these and other players hoping to achieve a career landmark, the 2020-21 schedule limited by COVID-19 did them no favors.
Blumenfeld lost her entire junior season to a knee injury, though as a freshman she was promoted to the varsity after Thanksgiving.
She was fortunate to play as a freshman. Blumenfeld entered high school with one anterior cruciate ligament tear already, the ACL in her right knee going in eighth grade.
She played her freshman and sophomore seasons at Glenbrook North, but late in her Amateur Athletic Union schedule the summer of 2020 she tore the left ACL, ruining her junior season.
(Due to it feeling limiting and unnatural, she only uses her prescribed knee brace unless she's really getting knocked around on the court.)
"I did this in two and a half years and it takes four years for some people to do this. That's just really special to me," Blumenfeld said of reaching the millennial mark.
Her father, Craig, thought the untimely injury would make it difficult, but not impossible, to reach 1,000 points.
This mission was possible.
Brook Blumenfeld takes pride in the scoring landmark "to show my dad I could do it, to show everyone else, and to show myself, yeah, it's going to be hard, but not impossible."