Jill Watson surpasses 1,000 as Northern Burlington girls basketball rallies past Allentown in final five minutes
Jan 27, 2025
COLUMBUS — Jill Watson was nervous enough about chasing her 1,00th point Monday before the Northern Burlington High varsity girls’ basketball team’s game versus Allentown in the Garwood Sports Complex.
She needed 20 points (four more than her average this season), and, in the third quarter, the Greyhounds saw the Redbirds erase a 10-point halftime deficit to tie the score.
Though Watson came up with a steal and score to open the final stanza, A’town’s 27-13 surge continued over the first three minutes of the fourth. Suddenly, the visitors had a four-point lead.
Then Watson kicked into high gear, scoring eight more points, including five during a 15-0 surge, to help Northern Burlington come away with a 58-48 victory. With a Towson University scout in attendance, Watson finished with 23 points to give her 1,003 for her career, making her just the fourth Greyhound female to ever reach such heights (the first since Lachelle Colbert eight years ago).
But that was just part of how important this 5-foot-7 senior guard was to head coach Ed Fitzpatrick’s squad on this day when she also hauled in 16 rebounds, came up with six steals and passed for six assists.
“All day I was nervous. Even during school, I was not thinking about anything else,” said Watson, who also holds the school’s single-game scoring mark with 34 points. “When the fourth quarter rolled around, and they tied the game, I had to take a breath and tell myself, ‘Now I’ve got to lock in.’”
Her stretch run started with 2:43 remaining when she hit a 3-point field goal off a pass from her classmate, Karina Harrison, and let out a yell. Harrison (nine points) had hit a 3-pointer of her own 1:35 earlier to put the home team back in front.
Needing two points, Watson had a chance at reaching the milestone out of a timeout with 2:10 left, but her baseline drive for a layup rolled out. When she grabbed a defensive rebound at the other end and was fouled, she headed to the free throw line, where she drained two foul shots for the magic moment with 1:56 to play. She would go on to hit 3-of-4 more from the charity stripe to cap her scoring, while six-foot junior center/forward Maleeya Brammer added 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Yet, Watson’s outing did not yield her game-high honors. That distinction went to Redbirds’ 5-1 sophomore guard Lily DeRose, who put up a career-high 24 points, including five 3-pointers, which was also a personal best early in her high school career.
“I was missing my shots early, so I just kept shooting to get in a rhythm,” said DeRose, who only had three points after one quarter. “The game was very up-and-down. But I’m proud of how we played. We kept fighting.”
Head coach Dana Wells’ club may have run out of a little steam down the stretch after going from down, 27-17, at intermission to up, 44-40, with 5:05 left in the game after DeRose hit three consecutive free throws.
From there, everyone got swept up in the excitement of what Watson was trying to do.
The situation may not have been ideal, yet the nerves still went away over those final five minutes as the Greyhounds went from down four to up, 55-44, while Watson joined 2004 grad Erin Walton (1,398 points), 2003 grad Erica Davis (1,258) and 2017 grad Colbert (1,089) among Northern’s all-time best girls’ basketball players.
ALLENTOWN (48)
Olhovsky 1-0-2, Patten 2-1-6, Braun 3-1-9, Rette 0-0-0, Rondinelli 0-1-1, DeRose 7-5-24, Sullivan 1-4-6, Barry 0-0-0.
Totals — 14-12-48.
NORTHERN BURLINGTON (58)
Watson 7-7-23, Harrison 3-0-9, Fryc 2-1-5, Ramaswamy 0-0-0, MkBrammer 3-0-6, MlBrammer 5-4-14, Nazario 0-1-1.
Totals — 20-13-58.
Allentown (10-7) 8 9 21 10 — 48
No.Burlington(9-5) 14 13 11 20 — 58
3-point goals — Patten, Braun 2, DeRose 5 (A), Watson 2, Harrison 3 (NB).
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