WILLIAMSTOWN - Neither Liz Flowers nor Fred Sauro could believe it.
But standout Williamstown High School basketball player Flowers had just eclipsed her own girls single-game school scoring record with a 42-point performance versus Mingo Central last Saturday in the John Preece Memorial Classic at Tug Valley High School.
''I had no idea how many points I had until after the game,'' said Flowers, a senior who had established the old record of 40 as a freshman on Feb. 17, 2009. ''I don't really pay much attention to that, so I just assumed I had 20 or something. When they told me I had broken my record, I asked, 'Are you sure? You ought to go back and check that.' But it was, and I didn't even realize it.''
Article Photos
Photo by?Jeff Baughan
Williamstown senior Liz Flowers, front, broke her own single-game school scoring record with a 42-point performance last Saturday. Flowers set the old mark as a freshman in 2009.
The star multi-sport (basketball, volleyball and track) athlete, so far a three-time Class A first-team all-state basketball selection, had connected on 16 of 28 shots from the floor with two treys and sank eight of 10 free throws in an 81-68 win for head coach Sauro's Yellowjackets. The 5-7 point guard also contributed team-highs in rebounds (9), steals (6) and assists (4) to the win.
''It was unexpected,'' said Flowers of surpassing her own mark. ''We were all doing well as a team, so I really didn't know scoring-wise where I was. It just kind of happened.''
Sauro played Flowers more in the middle than usual Saturday with Mingo Central in a zone defense, because ''they had three 6-footers and Liz at 5-7 is one of our taller girls and is a good rebounder too,'' said the veteran Williamstown head girls coach. ''We knew she hit a few shots inside and had a couple out-of-bounds plays for her to get the ball inside, but didn't realize what she was doing.''
When assistant coach Howard Rowsey asked Sauro after the game if he knew how many points Flowers had, ''I thought about 17 or 18,'' said Sauro. ''I couldn't believe it when he told me it was 42. I knew she had scored a lot, but I didn't think it was that many. It was funny, it was a quiet 42 if ever I saw one. It was a blue-collar 42 with her just scrapping and hustling and shots in the middle of the lane. Liz was doing blue-collar work in the paint with pull-up jumpers from seven and eight feet and rebounds. She just did a remarkable business-like job.
''And she knows that they're not her points - they're our points. Whatever it takes for us to get where we want is what she wants too.''
The West Liberty cage recruit has helped guide the Yellowjackets to a 13-1 record and No. 3 state ranking in Class A going into Thursday night's home game against Ravenswood. In the ratings, Williamstown trails only No. 1 Wheeling Central and No. 2 Huntington St. Joseph, having lost to the Maroon Knights 73-58 back on Dec. 9 at home and with the Irish still upcoming on the schedule, also at home, on Feb. 7.
