Battle of the unbeatens
Women’s team rewriting school record books
By Caroline Morris, staff writer
Posted on January 25, 2007

On Sunday afternoon at UNC-Wilmington, JMU senior forward Shirley McCall became a member of an elite club. With 6:36 left in the first half, McCall hit an eight-foot jumper to score her 1,000th point.

“I’m very proud and happy that she got it,” coach Kenny Brooks said. “She’s gone through her career, sometimes being overlooked when she shouldn’t have been, because she’s definitely as good as anybody on our team.”

McCall won’t have to go to the 1,000-point club meetings alone. She joins junior forward Tamera Young, senior center Meredith Alexis and senior guard Lesley Dickinson to become the fourth player to accomplish the feat, less than a year apart from each other.

“To have [McCall] be the fourth member to do that in the span of a year just goes to show you how important this class and Tamera Young are to the women’s basketball program,” Brooks said.

Dickinson was the first of the group to reach the milestone. She scored her 1,000th point at East Carolina Dec. 18, 2005. It took her only 68 games to pass the milestone — the second fewest in school history.

Two months later, Alexis reached the mark against George Mason. She began her senior season as the only player in school history to have 1,000 points and 900 rebounds. She has since shattered the JMU record and became the Colonial Athletic Association’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,135 rebounds.

Both Young and McCall started the season close to the 1,000-point mark with 885 and 907 career points, respectively. The question wasn’t if, but when, the two players would break the record, and who would do it first.

 Young hit the mark this season the next week (Dec. 18) when the team hosted Savannah State. A 3-pointer in the first five minutes of the game put her over the top, tying her with Dickinson for second-fastest ascent to the 1,000-point plateau. She became the fifth Duke to pass 1,000 points in her junior season, joining her teammates Alexis and Dickinson.

McCall endured a setback in her quest when she broke her finger during the first game of the season against East Carolina. She missed seven games and didn’t return to action until Dec. 21 at Wake Forest.

The class of 2007 is the first to have three 1,000-point scorers in 30 years. Julie Franken, Floretta Jackson and Betsy Witman (1983-‘87) were the last to do it. This is the first time in JMU history the Dukes have had four players playing simultaneously that broke the 1,000-point barrier.

When McCall thinks back to her freshman year, she said she couldn’t believe all that she and her teammates have accomplished. 

“I was just trying to get through the day with practice,” McCall said. “It was so hard — the transitions of playing basketball because now it was like a job — and I was going to class and trying to study and everything. Basically, we were just trying to stick together and stay strong, because we had so much put upon us.”

While McCall may have questioned what she and her teammates were capable of, Brooks never did.

“I didn’t know until we started playing games and we were very close; the only thing we were missing was experience,” Brooks said. “And it carried over to their sophomore year where we won 18 games, and I knew we were on the horizon of something very special.”

Alexis, who is currently fourth on JMU’s scoring list with 1,467 points and Dickinson sixth with 1,446 points, are now chasing Holly Rilinger’s (1992-’93, ‘94-‘97) school record of 1,607 points, which was set in 1997. Young, who currently has 1,174 points and a year remaining, is likely to leave JMU in 2008 as the all-time leading scorer.

While the scoring record is an important one, it isn’t the only one the Dukes are breaking. Dickinson broke the JMU career free-throws record on Dec. 28 against Auburn. She broke the record seven games ahead of Sue Manelski, the former record-holder, and currently has made 424 free throws. She is ranked third in the country for free-throw percentage, making 92.5 percent of her shots.

Along with the rebounding record, Alexis holds school records for double-doubles (54) and double-figure rebounding games (66). She broke the school record for consecutive double-doubles with six against Savannah State on Dec. 18.

Despite all the accolades and broken records, the Dukes aren’t distracted.

“It doesn’t matter who gets Player of the Week or who breaks what record, or even who starts what game,” McCall said. “The main thing is just about winning the game; it’s just whatever it takes.”