Tonia Brown reaches 1,000 points
2/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2004
It was a bittersweet moment for senior guard Tonia Brown as she earned her way into the Wake Forest record books. The 5-10 senior guard from Roanoke, Va., became just the 12th player in Wake Forest history to score 1,000 or more career points with a basket mid-way through the second half of the Deacons' game against N.C. State. But as time expired, Wake Forest couldn't hold off the Wolfpack, and the game in which Brown reached a milestone wasn't a victory. N.C. State won 70-66, avenging an earlier loss to Wake Forest in Raleigh.
Brown needed just 11 points against N.C. State to join the elite Deacon group, and she finished with 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting and went a perfect 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in 24 minutes of action. She's the first player since RaeAnna Mulholland (1996-97) to break the 1,000-point plateau- and the first player to do so under Coach Charlene Curtis' tenure.
"If we had beaten the Wolfpack for the second time this year, it would have been a lot more memorable," Curtis said. "It's always a better feeling when you win. But I scored a thousand when I was in school, but I can't remember whether we won or lost the game. I remember the shot I took, but I can't remember if we won. You play so many games... But it's been a long time (since a Wake player scored 1,000 career points), and we've been searching for consistent scorers over time. Tonia is starting to give us that."
"It's a great accomplishment to score 1,000 points," Brown said. "I might be the first player to do that since coach has been here, but you also want to win the game. I am proud of the accomplishment, but I probably wanted to win more."
The journey to 1,000 points and the Wake Forest records books was not necessarily a smooth one. Brown scored many of her points from beyond the arc but quickly became known as a jump shooter. Teams subsequently played her for her jump shot. After hitting 20 threes her freshman season, she found a way to lead the Deacons in scoring, three-pointers, steals and minutes played as a sophomore. She earned third-team All-ACC honors and was named the team's MVP.
"As a freshman, she played behind a senior and learned, and then she started her sophomore year, and that year set a three-point record (threes made in a season)," Curtis said. "Then she made all-conference third team her sophomore year. Then her junior year people know you a little bit better and play you a little bit differently. It was harder for her to get the same looks. Now she's putting the ball on the floor and scoring more off the dribble, pulling up and hitting the jump shot. She's proven she's not just a spot-up three-point shooter by putting the ball on the floor and shooting ball quicker off screens."
The realization that Brown could reach 1,000 points in her senior season came about at the end of her junior campaign. She knew she would have to, as she put it, "really play" to get there, but with early success this year and lately a string of double-figure outings, Brown broke the 1,000-point barrier against the Wolfpack. But as most shooters do, Brown hit a shooting slump, and before she could rank among the Deacons' all-time best, she had to battle through the frustrations of her shot gone awry.
The first five ACC games of this season, Brown was shooting just 20 percent (9 for 45) from the field. Wake Forest dropped four of its first five contests. Uncharacteristically Brown missed 25 consecutive attempts from behind the three-point line during one stretch. She was held scoreless in 13 minutes against North Carolina on Jan. 2, marking the first time since Dec. 16, 2001 (High Point) that Brown failed to score in a game. But in the last five games, Brown has slowly started get back on track. She scored in double figures in four of the last five games (through the N.C. State game) and is averaging 12.0 points per game, shooting 44 percent from the field and 52 percent from three-point range. Throughout a season of adjustments, Brown found her niche and her shooting stroke.
"She's had to adjust coming off the bench, but she has played very well in our last four or five games," Curtis said. "Cotelia (Bond-Young) was that player, but still you've got have that (a spark off the bench). Tonia's given us that. She wasn't comfortable with that (coming off the bench) because she has started so many games, but I think she goes in very focused. It gives her a chance to get a feel for the flow of the game. And she's picked up her defense, and that's what we've talked a lot about - being consistent on both ends of the floor. We need her to make shots but need her to be consistent on both ends."
"I think I'm doing a lot more now, especially when I went through my slump," Brown said. "They (other teams) couldn't just guard me for my three. I broke out of that about five games ago, but I was taking the ball to the basket, making more layups and getting fouled a lot more. Now that my shot is back I think it is harder to guard a player like that."
Brown said that her teammates kept confidence in her and told her to keep shooting the ball even though her shot wasn't falling as it usually did. She said the coaching staff told her that everything was there mechanically and that she should just "get her head into it." She would eventually shoot her way out of her slump. She did just in time for the meat of the second half of the ACC schedule and a string of road games.
Those games weigh heavily in Brown's mind because as proud as she is of her personal accomplishments, she wants her team to reach the postseason. She wants her senior season to go down as one of the most successful at Wake Forest in recent women's basketball history.
"I didn't image at all this would happen," Brown said. "My freshman year there were two seniors ahead of me and one got hurt, which pushed me into playing more. But I didn't think in 1,000 years this (1,000 points) would happen. You want to get as many accomplishments as you can while you're in college. But the main goal is to reach post-season play, and if I'm supposed to score a thousand points to get there then I want to do that.
"I want to be part of the first team to go to postseason play since 1988. I want that to be our accomplishment. I want to know that my senior year we finally went to the postseason after 16 years of not (going). Personally, I want do whatever it takes to get us there."