Girls Basketball Notebook: Abbonizio credits teammates past and present for helping her break record

The record for most points in a career by a Springfield High girls basketball player stood for only two years.

Alexa Abbonizio was a sophomore when her teammate Jordan D’Ambrosio broke a 27-year-old record in February 2019.

Since arriving at Springfield, Abbonizio has been one of the best scorers in Delaware County. The All-Delco senior guard has more 3-pointers than any player in the county since her freshman year.

While the coronavirus pandemic has robbed her and everyone else of several regular season games, Abbonizio entered 2021 on track to break D’Ambrosio’s record relatively quickly.

Abbonizio did it last Tuesday, scoring her record-breaking 1,233rd point in Springfield’s 49-35 win over Marple Newtown.

“It would be cool to break anyone’s record, not just because it was Jordan’s,” Abbonizio said. “To get that accomplishment is pretty big,”

Although Abbonizio would rather focus on her team’s accomplishments this season — the Cougars are in first place in the Central League and undefeated — it was difficult for her to ignore the approaching record.

“I knew I was close. My dad has been keeping track of all of my stats … not just points, but everything that goes into a game,” she said. “Me and (Springfield coach) Ky (McNichol) had a talk the night before the game, just letting me know that it’s going to happen so that my family and everyone can be prepared and I can have everyone there at the game.”

As even-keeled as it comes, Abbonizio didn’t feel extra pressure to break the record last Tuesday. Of course, it helped that she needed only six points.

“We talked about how we weren’t going to run plays — well, we run plays for me anyway — but we weren’t going to run plays for me on every possession for me to get it right away,” Abbonizio said. “I think I got it in the second quarter, so in the first quarter we just tried to play naturally and not worry about it. But the pieces fell together in the second quarter for me.”

Becoming the program’s all-time leading scorer couldn’t have been possible without good teammates. Abbonizio has been surrounded by many good ones, from D’Ambrosio and Belle Mastropietro, to Alyssa Long and current teammate and senior Rachel Conran. All have played a huge part in helping Abbonizio development and reach the awesome achievement. She wanted her teammates to know that, too.

“I put something on Instagram thanking my teammates,” Abbonizio said. “I couldn’t have done it without all of the teammates I’ve had over the past four years. Passing me the ball, trusting me (to score) and stuff like that. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

COVID-19 has forced schools to limit the number of tickets sold at games to close family members, but Springfield made an exception for Abbonizio last week.

“The athletic directors (Glen Mallon and Tom Lemieux) were really nice and generous,” she said. “They let me have as many family members as I wanted and then a couple of my teammates let me have their tickets so I could have friends there, too.”

Abbonizio has bigger goals for herself and the team. The future West Chester University Golden Ram is looking forward to avenging Springfield’s loss in last year’s Central League championship, and also is targeting a second consecutive District 1 title.

“We only have five regular season games left. I feel like this season just started,” she said. “We got shut down a couple of times and had to get back on our feet. We’re gunning for the Central League, that’s our main goal right now. Especially the senior captains, we’ve made it to the (league final) all three years and we want to make it four out of four.”

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In this shortened basketball season, the Inter-Ac League is experimenting with a 30-second shot clock. And, wow, does it make a big difference in how the game is played.

One of the biggest criticisms of high school basketball, especially on the girls side, is its slow pace. Traditional Catholic League powerhouses such as Archbishop Carroll and Cardinal O’Hara have been successful “taking the air out of the ball” and wearing opponents down by passing the ball around and around and running out the clock.

The shot clock prohibits this style of ball and in essence changes everything about the game … and it does so for the better.

Lauren Power, who coached at the collegiate level before taking over the head coaching position at Academy of Notre Dame three seasons ago, is a huge advocate of the shot clock and hopes the league keeps it beyond this year.

“Coaching in college, that’s what I was used to,” Power said. “Here, we knew that it would work to our advantage because of the way that we play – we like to press and we put a lot of defensive pressure on teams to try to take them out of their comfort zone. And, offensively, we run a lot of quick stuff. So, it does benefit us. We are thrilled about the shot clock and think it’s a long time coming.”