There was a lot of attention paid to every point Bailey Staton scored for Polk County on Tuesday. There will be more attention for every point going forward.
That’s because no Wolverine – girl or boy – has ever scored more.
Staton’s midrange jumper with 6:19 to play officially gave her 1,638 points on the number, surpassing Hayley Kropp’s former mark by one. She ended the game with 28 points, pushing the new record to 1,643 points – and counting.
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It wasn’t easy, even though Staton made it look like it. She struggled a bit from 3-point range, making just three on the night. She got a lot of good looks thanks to tenacious defense, both her own and her teammates. The bulk of her points came from point-blank range, thanks to daring drives and easy layups in transition.
But the fourth-quarter baskets that pushed her past Kropp came from creating her own space, and came against a fresh defender. Those never seemed to be in short supply against a frustrating box-and-one. As the fourth began, a new, energetic Panther came bouncing in to take her turn at stopping Staton.
“It’s like, are we kidding?” Staton said of looking up and seeing a fresh set of legs set to defend her. “It’s something that this year I’m getting used to more. It makes me want to go harder. It makes me more hungry. I’m going to run myself to death until she’s off of me. I enjoy it, though. I get to move more.”
Sometimes that movement looks like it never stops. It’s something that impresses Wolverines coach Brandy Alm.
“It says a lot for her character because she doesn’t give up,” Alm said. “We have a box-and-one offense. But girls will grab her jersey. They’ll hold her. They do a lot to try to keep her from scoring. We run a staggered double screen, and she manages to get a couple of shots off. As hard as she works, she makes that offense work better for us. She tires out multiple defenders a game because she won’t stop, and they get tired of it.”
That constant work is something that has been an evolving pattern for Staton.
“Watching her evolve and progress from her freshman year, it was a struggle to get her to jump rope,” Alm laughed. “Now it’s a struggle to get her to take a day off. She works out all the time. She’s just driven to get better.”
That’s something of which Staton is proud.
“One thing I tell myself, something that gets me through the game that I tell myself every day, is that no one is outworking me,” she said. “I just want to run them until I get the ball. That’s my mindset. I know it sounds kind of cocky, but I don’t want to let anything stop me from getting the ball.”
Almn said her seat is the best one in the house. She enjoyed watching Kropp set the record, and she’s enjoyed watching Staton chase and surpass it.
“Oh, it’s fun,” Alm said. “I got to watch Hayley do it, and they’re a lot alike in a lot of different ways. Their work ethic is very similar. They’re hungry just to win – every game, every possession, every quarter.”
Staton’s got the bulk of her senior year left to play, but when she’s able to sit back and consider her record, to look at the list with her name at the top, she’s not going to think of the moment. She’s going to think of the moments that made it.
“I feel like I’m going to appreciate that I worked for it,” she said. “I’m not going to remember it as that one shot, or this one day. It’s hours and hours and years and all those nights of me going into the gym past 12 o’clock. It’s the days I didn’t want to, but I still did it. When I look at the list, that’s what I’m going to see.”
Polk County Girls Basketball Career Scoring Leaders
- Bailey Staton, 1,643 (active)
- Hayley Kropp, 1,637
- Autumn Owen, 1,148
- Kylie Lewis, 1,092
- Kim Staley, 1,084
- Briana Cunningham, 1,067
- Olivia Overholt, 1,033
Bailey Staton began Tuesday’s game with 1,615 points. How she surpassed Hayley Kropp’s record of 1,637
First Quarter (3 points)
* Basket, free throw
Second Quarter (11 points)
* 3-pointer at 6:40 mark
* Steal, layup at 6:17
* Layup with 4:49 to go
* Run-out layup with 3:36 to go
* Layup off outlet pass from Amiyah Waters
Third Quarter (5 points)
* Layup at 6:25 mark
* 3-pointer from left wing at 4:33
Fourth Quarter (9 points)
* Layup to open quarter
* Driving short jumper at 6:19 to set a new school career scoring record
* Short jumper, 5:30
* 3-pointer, right wing, with 2:20 to go
