Basketball Star Ends H.S. Career on 1,000-Point High

At 5-foot-11.5 inches, Lauren Daugherty is the shortest kid in her family.

"My older brother is 6'5. My little brother just passed me in height, so he's now 6'1," she said. "I always call him 'my munchkin,' and now he's taller than me."

Now a senior at Hanover Park High School, Daugherty, 18, is the middle of three siblings and the only girl. She casts her own long shadow, though. This year while a captain of her high school girls basketball team, she reached a milestone few high school basketball players ever reach: 1,000 career points.

One thousand career points was never a goal Daugherty consciously worked toward, but at the end of her junior year her coach told her it was likely she'd reach that milestone within the next year. "We didn't even really talk about it much, I think only the game before it happened he pulled me aside," she said.

For the occasion, many of her family and friends were in attendance. "It was really fun having all my family and friends there, and it's cool to know that my name's going to be up on the board forever," Daugherty said.

The team's season held other graces for Daugherty, including becoming conference champions, helping her coach make it to his 200th win and making it to the county championship.

"We were really happy with how far we did go," she said. "Our last game we played Lincoln and we lost in triple overtime. But just knowing that we battled that hard, everyone was pushing for it and we didn't go out without a fight."

This was also the last season at Hanover Park for Daugherty, who graduates this year. She has shared a court with some of her teammates since her first CYO team in elementary school.

"We just have such great chemistry because we've played together for so long," she said. "We're all really good friends, too. We go out to dinner together, all of us, and we have team sleepovers. When you're that close off the court, you have more chemistry on it."

Daugherty will attend Loyola University in Baltimore, where she will play basketball while she pursues a major in elementary education. Her older brother attends Community College of Morris and lives at home. "We never really had to have that 'Goodbye' when older siblings go off to college," she said. "Thankfully I have two or three friends who are debating going to Loyola, so that would be really cool to have someone there. We can ease into it together."

At Loyola Daugherty will room with other student athletes, which she thinks will also help ease the transition. "I have brothers, so I'm not used to living with other girls on a daily basis," she said. "And I always had my own room. It's going to take a lot of getting used to."

Before she goes to college Daugherty says she'll have to learn to do her own laundry and how to cook a little. There is, however, one thing she may be able to bring with her.

"I had my own fan section at every game (in high school)," she said, made up of parents, brothers, aunts, grandparents and friends. "They're talking now about getting a camper and following me around because they want to go to my games next year, too."