Lakstigala moves up to Naperville Central's No. 2

First it seemed Mia Lakstigala was in a hurry Thursday night to reach the next milestone. Then it looked like she was in a hurry to leave it behind.

Thing is, the Naperville Central senior guard was the only Redhawk who didn't know she entered the game at Metea Valley needing 12 points to pass 2006 graduate Erica Carter and become the No. 2 all-time scorer in program history. The Redhawks defeated Metea Valley 51-40 in Aurora.

Lakstigala made her first five shots and six of her first seven, the first three on assists from senior guard Maiah DeShazer. Lakstigala tied Carter at 1,664 points with her 11th point of the night, a 10-foot jumper that put the Redhawks ahead 13-5 with 1:01 to go in the first quarter.

"I was just trying to be aggressive and take the ball to the basket," Lakstigala said.

"She's got great instincts and does a great job shooting off the dribble," Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said. "She's got a little jump shot, step back, step in, 3, 2, layup, fallaway, Euro-step. She's got a pretty nice package."

With 26.0 seconds to go in the period, she passed Carter when she rebounded a teammate's miss on the left side of the basket and put it right back in off the backboard. Her teammates on the bench erupted in cheers. Nussbaum called a timeout so they could let Lakstigala in on the moment.

"I wasn't really expecting it," Lakstigala said. "I scored a layup and then everybody on the bench just started going crazy. And I was confused about what was going on, but it was exciting when I found out what happened."

Lakstigala trails only 2004 graduate Candace Parker, who scored 2,753 points.

The milestone behind the Redhawks (21-4, 11-0 DuPage Valley Conference), the basket seemed to want to take a break from them in the second quarter. They made just 2 of 15 shots, and Metea Valley (6-13, 1-9) caught up, tying the game at 22 at halftime.

"They were excited," Metea Valley coach Cedric Williams said of his Mustangs. "I said, you know, he's going to come out, they're going to give you a run. Just like momentum, hills and valleys. You're in the valley, you just have to fight through it, and they did that. I'm proud of them."

Metea Valley hung around the rest of the game, but Naperville Central regained the lead early in the third quarter with a 7-0 run that started with a Gaby Melby 3-pointer.

"We kind of put a game plan together and we stuck by it," Williams said. "We executed that as well as we could. They made some baskets, but we missed 25 layups. That killed us right there."

But the night belonged to Lakstigala. She finished with a game-high 30 points, plus 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 rebounds.

"She's just done a tremendous job, and she'll be great for Penn. And I'd like to see her win a few more games for us, too," Nussbaum said.

Redhawks teammate Lucy Schmid added 8 points and 13 rebounds.

Tess Thompson led the Mustangs with 11 points and 7 rebounds.