BRISTOL — The St. Paul Falcons have made history this season after defeating Holy Cross in the Naugatuck Valley Championship to become back-to-back NVL Champions for the first time in school history.
However, alongside the team success, individually, Audrey Tice has accomplished a great feat of her own by becoming the fifth girls basketball player to eclipse 1,000 points in Falcon history.
Entering the NVL quarterfinals against Torrington, Tice was unaware of how many points she needed to secure her 1,000th point. However, late in the third quarter Tice drove to the lane and made a layup off a screen to give herself her 13th point.
Tice led the team in scoring that night with a total of 18 points as the Falcons defeated Torrington 48-41, but her 13th point was all she needed to cement her place in history.
“Before the game I wasn’t sure how much I needed because they didn’t want to put pressure on me going into the game because it was NVLs so I kind of just played my own game and it came in the second half,” Tice said. “It felt really good because it was one of my goals since I was a freshman.”
She now joins Liz Stich (2001) with 1,783 points, Chelsea Mone (2010) with 1,031 points, Jade Udoh (2020) with 1,128 points and Janessa Gonzalez (2020) with 1,527 points as the only players to eclipse 1,000 points.
“Those are some really good players and now I get to be up there with them,” she said. “But I’m staying focused. I didn’t get too excited because we still have more games to move on to, but it feels really good. I transferred here my sophomore year and it changed my whole perspective on basketball and gained a new family and a great coach.”
St. Paul assistant coach and fellow 1,00th point club member Chelsea Mone has coached the last three 1,000 point members including Tice. She said it's a difficult achievement to reach, but Tice deserves to be on the list with the rest of St. Paul's top scorers.
"It has been an honor to coach the last three 1,000 point scorers at St. Paul. As a fellow 1,000 point scorer, I know how difficult it is to obtain that achievement. It's extremely difficult especially in a program like St. Paul, where everyone is taught to put the team first above all individual statistics," Chelsea Mone said. "Audrey is an extremely talented player that I have had the privilege to coach the past three years. Her unselfish play and her bond with her teammates is immediately noticeable when watching her play. I really admire how she has grown not only as a player, but as a young woman."
St. Paul head coach Joe Mone further echoed Chelsea Mone's sentiment stating that he is grateful and appreciative to be able to have a player like Tice. He said she is once in a blue moon type of player who has given everything to the St. Paul program.
He said it’s been also been an honor to coach her and watch her take her place in history.
“I’m really impressed with her because she pretty much did it in three years,” Mone said. “One thing about her and the kids that are up there who have 1,000 points they’re not just kids who took 30 or 40 shots a game. They were all kids that played defense, rebounded and passed the ball. It’s a great club to be in, but I’m more excited and proud of the fact that she scored it while also playing as a team player.”
He said scoring 1,000 points is difficult at any level, but finding the fine line between scoring and playing team basketball is the most impressive thing about Tice.
“You can read the paper and see all these kids who score more than she does, but I'll take her before I take them because she’s going to score, she’s going to play defense, she’s going to give the ball up and she handles the ball in pressure situations,” he said. “She’s a really good player. It’s a privilege to be able to coach someone like that. I’m extremely happy and count my blessings that she decided to come here and play for me.”
