Lindsay Towle couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It was early in the second quarter of a Friday Division III high school girls basketball game at Sanborn Regional and the St. Thomas Aquinas senior guard had just made the first of two foul shots.
Towle’s teammates on the St. Thomas bench exploded with cheers.
And then it hit her — oh, yeah, 1,000 points.
“I actually had no idea what was going on,” said Towle, who began the night with 992 career points. “And then a referee blew a whistle and said it was 1,000 points.”
The game was briefly stopped. Towle had a milestone photo op with her parents, Jon and Cathy, and then the game continued.
St. Thomas ended up losing an entertaining, high-octane game with Sanborn, 65-60, and Towle scored 20 points to help keep the Saints in it.
Towle’s journey to 1,000 was by no means conventional. She played three years at nearby Portsmouth Christian Academy, a private Division IV school in Dover. She scored 890 points there, led the Eagles to three D-IV playoff berths and was twice named to the Division IV All-State Team.
This past summer she decided to transfer to St. Thomas.
“It was not about sports,” she said. “I was thinking about my future and college. I felt I needed a new environment before college. St. Thomas was bigger, so it was the most logical step for me.”
Towle, a Dover native, wants to go to college and play basketball there. Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., and Regis College in Weston, Mass., are her current top choices. She’d like to major in business and marketing.
“My dad mentioned it to me last year,” Towle said of the possibility of transferring. “We talked about it a bit. Last summer it hit me. I’m ready to go.”
It’s been a good fit academically and athletically.
“It’s been really great,” said Towle, who is 5-feet, 8-inches tall. “The team has been very welcoming.”
The Saints have played well, going 6-4 overall and 4-3 in Division III. Towle is averaging a shade over 12 points per game as the team’s point guard.
“She’s a pass-first guard,” said STA coach JP Sanborn. “She's always looking to pass. We have a deep bench, so we don’t need to get 20 points from her.
“She gets there early to practice, laces up her shoes and takes shots. She’s not so concerned about scoring.”
Sanborn said that a handful of Towle’s former PCA teammates showed up Friday anticipating the 1,000 points and cheered her on when she made it.
Towle can remember when she was younger and the 1,000-point scorers at PCA were celebrities to her. She never contemplated the 1K milestone until her dad, who coached her for two years at PCA, mentioned last year that she had a shot at it. “It started to become a reality,” she said.
But not an obsession.
In fact, Towle is more interested in making a good pass than a 3-point shot; although, she is a proven scorer with 3-point range and the ability to effectively drive to the basket.
Her AAU coach, Jim Noble, stressed passing, so she has worked to improve that part of her game, as well as ball handling, so she can be a better point guard.
“For me passing is a lot of fun,” Towle said. “Making the extra pass is great. I like watching the NBA highlights with the behind-the-back passes. I’ve just filled into the (point guard) role.”
She likes the role, which has less pressure than at PCA where she was expected to handle the ball and also be the team’s leading scorer.
At St. Thomas, there is a nice inside presence with Maggie Marsh, so Towle doesn’t feel the need to score a bunch of points.
“I can be a facilitator for the game,” she said.
Her defensive game, however, “can step it up a bit. I need to get quicker with my feet. On offense I need to work harder to get open shots. In college, I won’t be as open as I am in high school.”
Moving forward this season, Towle would like to have a winning record and make the playoffs. With Towle running the show at the point, that seems within reach.
“The team is a very drama-free team,” Sanborn said. “They play for each other. (Towle) encompasses what the team is. Everyone does what they have to do.”