Sarah Kiely doesn’t care a whole lot about scoring points.
What matters most to the Council Rock North senior is the outcome of the game.
“I don’t go out there to score the most points, I don’t go out there to get the most rebounds,” Kiely said. “I just go out there to do whatever it takes to win, do whatever it takes to help my team.
“If a team is double teaming me, I’m willing to score two points that game as long as we win.”
Kiely isn’t kidding.
In Rock North’s showdown with Abington recently, she misfired on her first 12 shots from the floor. Kiely still wound up with 10 points in a remarkable overtime win that saw the Indians rally from nine down late to send the game into OT. Rock North went on to win 63-52.
“When we really needed her, we knew we could go to her,” Rock North coach Lou Palkovics said.
Not surprisingly, the only thing that mattered to Kiely was that the Indians won, and she had held Emily Leer – her Vanderbilt-bound AAU teammate – to six points.
“Keeping Emily to six points just shows how hard you worked to keep someone of her caliber below 10,” Kiely said.”Scoring 20 points is nice, but having that defensive aggression is a bigger accomplishment.”
Even bigger than surpassing the prestigious 1,000-point plateau?
Hardly, but it comes pretty close in the world of Sarah Kiely, who reached the prestigious 1,000-point milestone on Jan. 17 in Rock North’s non-league game against Harvest Prep.
“I love her getting an individual accomplishment because she never sets out to do it,” Palkovics said. “I have had a bunch of Division One signees, and they have all been really good.
“Sarah knows when she needs to step up as our go to player, but she’s okay playing a role on this team, and that’s what makes us so much better.”
Appropriately, Kiely – ever the blue collar worker – scored her historic basket on a putback after pulling down an offensive rebound.
“I was just so excited,” she said. “I work out, and I try to do a lot to improve my game offensively and defensively. That’s always a goal, but a thousand points is a lot of points.”
Kiely ended a recruiting war for her talents last April when she made a verbal commitment to accept a basketball scholarship to American University.
She selected the Washington, D.C., school from a final list that – in addition to American - included Colgate, Rider, Bucknell, Monmouth, Sacred Heart, Loyola College in Maryland, Princeton and Vanderbilt.
In the end, it came down to American and Colgate, and the decision to attend American brought an end to the rigorous recruiting process.
“I had to travel to all the colleges,” she said. “You have to sit for five hours in a little office with all the coaches surrounding you, gunning questions at you.
“I just felt most comfortable around the American coaches. When I talked to the other coaches, I started fumbling on words, and I’d start talking about the most random things. I’m very comfortable around the American coaches.”
Another factor that weighed into her final decision was the fact that the D.C. school is in close proximity to James Madison University where her older brother Connor is a student.
“We’re 18 months apart, and he can take a bus up to D.C. for the weekend and come to all my games,” Kiely said. “That was important because I’m a big family person.”
Kiely admits that having the college decision behind her has been a huge relief.
“Coming into this year, I really had nothing to worry about,” she said. “Getting a thousand points was the only thing weighing on my shoulders.
“Now I can have fun, I can focus on getting to states, getting to the district final. I feel very relaxed now.”
A relaxed Kiely is averaging 13.3 points a game and 8.4 rebounds for an Indian squad that is atop the National Conference standings, but beyond the points and beyond the rebounds, the Rock North senior brings a competitive spirit to the court that cannot be taught.
She takes pride in the less glamorous aspects of the game.
“I would like to say I’m an all-around player,” Kiely said. “I think my defense has grown a lot, and defense is a big part of my game.”
Palkovics once described Kiely as a ‘lunch-pail type person.’ It just might be the perfect description.
“She comes to practice and gives 120 percent the whole time,” he said. “She’s the first one to stay after to work with the coaches.
“She’s an extremely unselfish player who is a tireless worker. She’s a great kid to coach because she listens, and she always wants to get better.”
In Kiely’s case, the results speak for themselves.
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