Milestone Met: Avery Hallinan becomes 8th Amesbury basketball player to reach 1,000 points

Jan. 27—AMESBURY — Hard-pressed to see if she could remember her first ever basket in an Amesbury jersey four years ago, Avery Hallinan thought for a couple of seconds before drawing a blank.

"My first ever basket!" said Hallinan. "Oh man, I don't remember."

But, it shouldn't be too hard to forgive her for that one.

After all, there have been a lot of baskets in between then and now.

So much so that Wednesday night, Hallinan etched her name into Amesbury history by becoming just the school's eighth 1,000-point scorer. Needing just 15 to reach the milestone coming into the game, the star senior and reigning Daily News MVP dropped 28 in an epic performance to lead Amesbury to a 64-43 win over visiting Beverly.

She got to do it in her home gym, with all of her friends and family watching as well as the boys team cheering her on before their game later that night.

And early in the second quarter, just needing two more points, she took an inbounds pass from her sister, McKenna, at the left elbow, took one hard dribble into the paint and put up a pretty right-handed floater that bounced off the front iron and in. The Amesbury faithful in attendence went crazy, and the game was stopped momentarily for a brief celebration of Hallinan's accomplishment.

Yeah, probably safe to say she's not going to forget that bucket.

"It's just amazing," said Hallinan after the game. "Especially to have played with Flannery (O'Connor) and Alli (Napoli) my freshman and sophomore years, and now to be able to be with them up there on the banner, it's unreal."

Hallinan came in averaging 20.6 points per game, and Amesbury (10-3) wasted no time getting her the ball.

She scored 10 points in the first quarter to help her team build a 19-13 lead, then got a quick bucket, a free throw and another bucket early in the second to take the pressure off early.

"I knew I needed 15," said Hallinan. "I knew that it was going to be a good game. Either I was going to do it today or Friday, so I really wasn't that worried because they were both going to be at home. But, I wanted to do it against the boys because they could come to our game today, instead of Friday they wouldn't have been able to because they'd be away at Georgetown.

"So there were definitely a lot of nerves coming in. But after the first quarter, I knew I was going to get it and I was fine."

Hallinan ended up scoring 18 of her game-high 28 points in the first half, and now sits at 1,013 for her career. and as she mentioned, she now joins Ashley Waters (1,118, AHS '05), O'Connor (1,298, AHS '19) and Napoli (1,102, AHS '20) as the fourth girl to reach the 1,000-point mark.

"Avery is probably one of the most coachable, hard-working kids I've ever had in terms of all of the little things she's does," said Amesbury coach Gregg Dollas. "And the way she's goes about it just quietly, and she communicates clear, she's never too up or too down. She's been amazing these last four years."

Besides Hallinan, Gabby Redford (15 points) and Sami Kimball (6 pts, 12 rebs) helped Amesbury build a 36-22 lead at the half and eventually cruise to a win. On both ends of the floor, Amesbury took control from the opening tip and didn't look back.

But, the story of the night was clear.

"Avery's been a really focused player," said Dollas. "Right from the get go, she's had a goal and she's gone after it the entire time."

Amesbury 64, Beverly 43

Beverly (43): Grace Coughlin 1-0-2, Lauren Caley 4-2-12, Angelina Mazzone 5-2-13, Molly Potter 2-0-4, Lindsey Gannon 1-0-2, Nikki Erricola 1-0-3, Abby Ruggieri 1-1-3, Nylah Ollivierre 0-0-0, Anna Michaud 1-0-2, Mia Bilotti 1-0-2, Madeleine Young 0-0-0, Lindsay Kaszynski 1-0-2. Totals 18-5-43

Amesbury (64): Gabby Redford 6-2-15, Sami Kimball 3-0-6, Liv DeLong 2-0-4, Avery Hallinan 12-3-28, McKenna Hallinan 1-0-3, Eli Marden 1-2-5, Calista Catarius 0-0-0, Emma Dollas 0-0-0, Sadie Bolth 1-1-3, Stella Mitchell 0-0-0. Totals 26-8-64

3-pointers: A — Redford, A. Hallinan, M. Hallinan, Marden; B — Caley 2, Mazzone

Beverly: 13 9 7 14 — 43

Amesbury (10-3): 19 17 18 10 — 64