As Paige Sevrain moved closer and closer to the 1,000-point mark of her high school basketball career, it seemed like she just wanted to get it over with.

She is gracious through all the interviews, but prefers to talk about how well her teammates are playing rather than talk about her game or her pursuit of 1,000 points. That is just the norm for the senior center.

Coming into a Dec. 19 game against Catasauqua, Sevrain was 23 points shy of the milestone.

A considerable number to put on the board, but with a career-high of 28 against Northern Lehigh last February, reaching the goal was not out of the question. Sevrain’s two older sisters, Gabby, and Sydney, were both home from college and able to make it to the home game.

The youngest of the Sevrain sisters finished with 16 in a 35-23 win over the Rough Riders, leaving her at 993 points.

“There were a lot of people coming up to me in school and wishing me well and it seemed like everybody knew about it and they were so nice,” said Sevrain.

The Lady Tigers were home against Blue Mountain for their next game and the whole family was in attendance again.

This time though, the Northwestern Lehigh boys’ team had a night off, allowing many of its players, including Sevrain’s cousin Braidon Berk to be in attendance. Also, since the game was just three days before Christmas, other alumni and former teammates of Sevrain were on hand to witness the milestone.

“When you look at how many alumni were here for this game, it shows just how popular Paige is,” said coach Chris Deutsch, who has coached all three of the Sevrain sisters. “The whole family is so nice, and Paige is always humble and gets along with everyone well. It has been a blessing to coach the three girls. Honestly, it’s going to be weird not having a Sevrain on the team next year.”

Just 11 seconds into the game, Sevrain worked down low and dropped the number to five. With three points to her credit coming into the second quarter, Sevrain seemed truly ready to end this thing and again found a spot down low and nailed the shot to put her team up 13-10.

With 1:42 left in the quarter, Sevrain went to her customary turnaround hook shot and the chase was over. To start the celebration, timekeeper Josh Zimmerman sounded the horn long and loud as Sevrain was mobbed by her teammates. Assistant coach Derrick Reinert handed Sevrain the game ball and she headed into the stands for hugs with her family and friends.

“I’m not sure it has really sunk in yet, but it started to when I went up into the stands,” said Sevrain with a smile. “I really wanted to get it tonight because my whole family is here and there are former teammates here and it was just special for me. It meant a lot to have them here for this game.”

Before too long, the celebration was over and Sevrain simply went back to playing basketball. She finished the game with 15 points to put her at 1,008 for her career, just ahead of Erika Thomas, the last Northwestern girls’ player to reach the mark.

Sevrain went into Christmas as the school’s fifth leading scorer all-time among girls. Before her career ends, it is likely that Sevrain will wind up at number two, currently held by Dana Stellar, who reached 1,110 in 2006. The 1,246 points scored by Sara Jones (2013) is probably unreachable, but with such a big number, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Thomas was on hand to see the milestone, as was the last boys player to reach the 1,000 mark, Sam Yadush, who is now an assistant coach for Northern Lehigh.

The Sevrain family left a mark on the school’s basketball program with Gabby Sevrain finishing her career with 490 points, and Sydney finishing with 867 points.

Sophomore Cara Thomas, who could be the next 1,000-point scorer for the Lady Tigers, took note of the night and especially of how Sevrain carried herself along the way.

“I am so happy for her and have learned so much from her,” said Thomas. “In the locker room before the game, I was saying ‘I want to be the one who gets the assist when she gets it,’ and we were all just so excited for her.”

As it turned out, the milestone assist did go to Thomas, who finished with 16 points and has 377 points just under halfway through her sophomore season.