Ely eclipses scoring record

BY MARTY MYERS

Times-Shamrock Writer

If she didn’t know when she stroked a 23-footer to start the game, when she banked in a 26-footer at the first-quarter horn, Montrose’s Dallas Ely knew Thursday was going to be her night.

The senior guard poured in 30 points to become the Lady Meteors all-time leading scorer with 1,395 career points, and, perhaps more significantly, led the way to a 54-28 rout of Forest City in a first-half battle of Lackawanna League DivisionIIIunbeatens.

On Monday, Jan. 30, Ely will be honored by Montrose Area prior to a varsity home game with visitingBlue Ridge.

Also at that time, Ely will receive a certificate as one of the players nationwide who was nominated to play in the McDonald’s All-America Game inChicagoin April.

Ely’s buzzer-beating dagger was the final thrust of a 21-6 spurt to open the game, and her double fist pump was a precursor of things to come.

“That one got me pumped up,” said Ely, who was 6 for 11 from 3-point range and added six steals, six rebounds and four assists. “The first two felt good, but that was something special.

“My shot hasn’t really been working for me, but tonight it was right. The perfect night to be on, finally.”

Ely buried three 3s and scored 13 in the opening quarter.

“When she hit something from about four steps behind the 3-point line, what did she have, seven or eight 3s?” marveledForestCitycoach Carl Urbas. “She’s a terrific basketball player, one of the best out of our league in a long time.

“Obviously we’re the underdog coming in here and our shooting didn’t help us. We didn’t have a good offensive performance at all. The shots we did get didn’t fall.”

Carly Erdmann scored 12 to leadForestCity, which got good looks but shot just 5 for 26 in the first half. And while Ely was burying 3s and knifing to the basket, teammate Sara Krupinski was quietly racking up some nice numbers, making all five shots and scoring all 11 of her points for the fifth-ranked victors.

“Dallasbecome the career scoring leader, we’re excited about it because that record’s been held for a long, long time,” said Krupinski, who also had eight rebounds. “And then beatingForestCityby this much was great. It’s very special for both those reasons.”

Ely needed 25 to break the mark of 1,390 set in 1980 by Ellen Mulligan. She had 19 by halftime as Montrose built a 34-12 lead, and it didn’t take long to get back to business in the third quarter.

She drained a 20-footer from the right baseline with7:01left, then shattered the mark with a 22-footer from the left wing with6:28to play.

“Any way it would have happened was special,” said Ely of the record-breaking 3. “It was going in the whole time. It felt good. I could feel something.”

While the individual milestone was a nice accomplishment, the Lady Meteors have their eyes set on bigger prizes, and Ely was impressed with assists from eight players, something she sees helping her club down the road.

“It just shows the teamwork that we have and what the overall goal is, for everyone to score and for us to win the game,” Ely said. “To have a lot of people with assists and to come out with a win like this, it shows what we have.

“This was a great win for us because we started the season rough but we’ve gotten better every game, and this just showed we’re here for real and what we can do.”