Payton Craig scored her 1,500th career point Friday as North Harrison’s girls made quick work of Gilman City 61-14 and moved one step closer to a conference title. There was little suspense about the game itself. North Harrison scored the first 36 points of the game and never looked back against the hapless Hawks, who only dressed out six for the game.
The main worry for Coach Aaron Long was whether or not his team would show rust after the long layoff, as Tuesday’s game with East Harrison was postponed due to inclement weather. But Payton Craig got her team going early, Brandy Rivet hit three 3-pointers early to take the pressure off of her, and North Harrison was on its way.
And the second half went in North Harrison’s favor, allowing Long to substitute freely. The only suspense was whether Payton Craig, who needed 17 points to get to 1,500, would get it Friday night. She did so early in the third quarter as Emma Craig got her the ball down low and she split two defenders to get to the basket.
From there, Brandy Rivet, who would later be crowned Homecoming Queen after the boys game, hit three 3-pointers, Addie Slaughter added a pair of putbacks, and Payton Craig hit a pair of free throws after getting a pass from Olivia Babinski to make it 55-9 after three quarters.
When Payton Craig came around, North Harrison had already returned to respectability; they have had a winning season every year since Coach Aaron Long had been there starting in 2009-2010. But with her on the floor, North Harrison has had its longest sustained run of success since the 1970’s. Through Friday night, they have been 73-23. The last group of players to lose fewer games were the teams from 1974-75 to 1977-78, which lost a combined total of 19 games. In 2015-2016, the Shamrocks had a record of 23-5, which was their best season since the 2003-2004 team, which went 24-3 and lost District Finals to Tiffany Troutwine’s Worth County team in overtime.
Payton is the fourth leading scorer in the area according to the News-Press rankings, with around 20 points per game; the only Class 1 player scoring more is Kourtlyn Rounkles of Southwest Livingston, with over 26. Craig is the area leader in steals per game, getting 6.3.
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