By:Brian Zanzonico
It took a "brick," a few misguided three-point attempts and the entire first quarter before Malverne junior Tatiana Lopez made history. But when she finally tallied the 1,000th point of her career with 7:22 left to go in the second quarter against Carle Place on Jan. 12, her teammates followed her lead en route to a 62-32 victory at Carle Place High School.
"I just took a lot of bad shots," said Lopez. "It's a big accomplishment, but we've still got a lot of games to go."
Lopez opened the game by missing her first nine shots, and the Lady Mules trailed 8-6 going into the second quarter. It was their lowest first-quarter point total since they were held scoreless against Freeport in the fifth-place game of the Lady Devils Tournament on Dec. 28, a 46-23 loss.
But after Lopez, a guard/forward hybrid, banked home a shot under the basket minutes into the second quarter, the floodgates opened. After play was stopped to mark Lopez's feat with the presentation of a plaque, Malverne displayed the tenacity that has made it the team to beat in Conference VI. Lopez's bucket sparked a 10-0 Malverne run, and the Lady Mules never looked back.
"They're a tough team," Lopez said of Carle Place (1-3 Conference VI). "They came out and played us hard."
With the win, Malverne improved to 4-0 in Conference VI.
Carle Place was competitive in the early going, aided by Jenna McLaughlin's 13 points. But as the game wore on, Malverne's size and defensive prowess became too much for an undersized Carle Place team that relies on its quickness. Malverne took a 34-11 lead at halftime, and cruised the rest of the way, as the Frogs managed only 21 second-half points. By contrast, the Lady Mules scored 17 in the fourth quarter alone. Lopez left the game with 3:41 to go, finishing with 13 points and five assists.
Lopez, along with Cold Spring Harbor star Wendy Szczerbiak and a few others, is considered one of the greatest basketball talents on Long Island. She outplayed a hobbled Szcerbiak on Jan. 7 in a 69-59 win over Cold Spring Harbor. Szczerbiak scored 16 points on a bad knee, while Lopez's 25 left her with 999 for her career.
"I really didn't know about [1,000 points] until a few days ago [after the Cold Spring Harbor game]," Lopez said.
Lopez's father, Darrol, the head coach of the Malverne boys' varsity basketball team, described his daughter as a gym rat who always had a basketball in her hand. In grade school she was a regular at the Malverne boys' practices, when her father was an assistant to the legendary Hank Williams.
"[Williams would] always tell the boys, 'She's going to have a better jump shot than you,'" said Darrol Lopez. Last season, his fifth as head coach, he lead the Mules to the Class B title game, which they lost in heartbreaking fashion, 53-52, to Somers-JFK.
Darrol Lopez and the contingent of Malverne fans who made the 11-mile trip to Carle Place to witness history repeatedly mentioned the player who they think will be the next 1,000-point scorer for the Lady Mules.
"Yep, number 42," Tatiana Lopez said. Number 42 is Alisha Steele, a forward who, as of Jan. 7, was averaging 9.1 points per game in four Conference VI games. Lopez and Steele were in sync against Carle Place, as Lopez, who got the bulk of her points inside but patrolled the perimeter most of the game, delivered a number of perfectly placed bullet passes underneath to Steele. Steele chipped in 12 points to go with 16 rebounds.
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