Athletic History Made as Senior Tess Duer Scores 1,000th Career Point

by Coach Deacon Kurzawski

On Senior Night against rival St. Joseph, Tess Duer accomplished something no female basketball player has done in the 30-year history of Aquinas Academy—she scored her 1,000th career point.

She finished the night with 31 points. But the number alone doesn’t tell the story.

When this season began, Tess had 614 career points. She had also missed games in previous seasons due to injuries. Reaching 1,000 was never guaranteed. It was going to require consistency, health, and growth throughout her senior year.

As a coaching staff, we believed she was capable. The real challenge was helping Tess believe it herself. She has always been an unselfish, pass-first point guard who values winning over personal statistics. She sees the floor extremely well and naturally looks to create opportunities for her teammates before looking for her own shot. After earning All-Conference honors last season, she approached this year with a new sense of purpose. She understood that if this team was going to compete for a championship, she would need to take on a greater scoring role.

From there, the work intensified. Over the summer, during preseason workouts, and throughout the season, Tess expanded her game. We spent significant time developing her midrange scoring, improving her ability to finish through contact at the rim, and mastering changes of speed to keep defenders off balance. She committed herself fully to that process.

As we tracked her points game by game, it became clear she had a real opportunity to reach 1,000 during the regular season. She nearly accomplished it in our final away game at Western Beaver, where she scored 19 points in the first quarter alone. Sitting just three points shy of the milestone, we made the decision to wait. Achievements like that deserve to happen at home, in front of family, classmates, and the Aquinas community.

The timing could not have been better.

We had already secured the section championship, but we were playing for something that had never been done in program history - an undefeated section title. We were also competing for the number one overall seed in the playoffs. And the opponent was St. Joseph, a rival.

What stood out most that night wasn’t just the basket itself.

Earlier in the day, Mrs. Mullican shared that her young daughter had asked that morning, “Are we attending the game this evening? I have to see Tess score 1,000 points. No girl has ever done it at our school and I want to see it.”

That’s when you realize moments like this are bigger than statistics.

Tess scored her 1,000th point on her second shot of the game—a three-pointer that brought the crowd to its feet.