A major milestone was reached in the first half of the Eastern women’s basketball team’s overtime win over Tennessee State on Saturday in Lantz Arena.

In the second quarter, junior guard Lariah Washington became the 27^th player in program history to surpass the 1,000-point mark for her career. She finished with a team-high 20 points to give her 1,015 points at Eastern.

She said that the milestone was not something she was keeping track.

“I didn’t really know about it until recently, but I’m just thankful to have teammates that are looking for me to get the ball, and just to be a part of this program.”

Washington currently ranks fifth in the conference in scoring and looks poised to receive All-OVC honors for the third-straight season to start her collegiate career.

She was named first team All-OVC and OVC Freshman of the Year in the 2019-20 season and second team All-OVC last season.

Eastern head coach Matt Bollant said he was glad to see her reach that mark, and especially being able to do so while helping the team get an important win.

“I’m just happy for her,” Bollant said. “She got three big offensive rebounds, we got down two, ran a good set for her and she got to the rim and got a layup. Made some big plays for us.”

Washington is the second Eastern player to eclipse the 1,000-point mark this season, with senior forward Abby Wahl doing so against Loyola-Chicago on Dec. 8.

She was also the fourth player to reach that milestone since Bollant took over the program in 2017.

Grace Lennox scored her 1,000^th point in the 2018-19 season and Karle Pace did so the following season. Lennox ranks 19^th in program history with 1,236 points and Pace ranks 21^st with 1,103. Pace is currently playing as a graduate student at Austin Peay, where she is scoring 14.8 points per game.

Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or ajtumino@eiu.edu.