Monica Wright hits 1,000-point plateau

Monica Wright wasn’t thinking about making school history Thursday night when she caught and pass from playmaker Sharnee Zoll and sent a 3-pointer spinning through the air.

Virginia’s sophomore guard was just trying to give her team the lead.

With 14 minutes 59 seconds remaining in the first half at the Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Wright actually accomplished both.

Her second basket of the game put the Cavaliers ahead to stay in what became an important 67-57 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Boston College and secured Wright’s place as one of the program’s all-time best players.

In just the 63rd game of her collegiate career, Wright surpassed 1,000 points — joining an elite club at Virginia that also includes current and former WNBA players Dawn Staley, Heidi Burge and Wendy Palmer.

“I really didn’t know,” Wright said. “My dad (Garry) called me a couple of games before and told me I had a chance to do it but I tried not to think about it because I didn’t want to mess up my game.”

As it turned out, Wright didn’t have to worry about that. Her 21 points against Boston College was a team high — the 13th time this season she’s accomplished that feat — and it gave her 1,017 career points in less than two full seasons.

“I’m sure it’s something a lot of players have done,” she said.

At Virginia, there are only 20 players in history with more career points than Wright and she is on pace to eclipse them all, even Staley, who tops the list with 2,135 points.

Wright, who was named the ACC Rookie of the Year last season, has started every game of her college career and could eventually break the single-season scoring mark of 612 points currently held by Heather Burge.

Right now, however, her priority is to help the Cavaliers send their seniors off with a victory in Sunday’s regular season finale against Georgia Tech and earn the program’s first NCAA Tourna-ment berth since 2005.

“The team as a whole has grown so much,” said Wright, who led the United States U19 team to the World Championship during the summer and is now the leading scorer for a 21-8 squad that has clinched a No. 4 seed in the upcoming ACC Tournament.

“We want to make some noise once we get there,” she said. “There’s definitely some excitement. We’ve played with the best and been up there with them. We all have confidence. It’s just a matter of us realizing what we can do.”