BE's Moore nets 1,000th career point

Paul Runey typically wouldn’t bother but, under the circumstances on Saturday, Bishop England’s girls basketball coach couldn’t resist. The Lady Bishops’ second string was preserving a healthy 20-point lead over Porter-Gaud midway through the second half when Runey called down his bench for his senior star Rhetta Moore to check back in. “I really wasn’t planning on putting her back in,” Runey said. “But when I realized how close she was, under the circumstances, it was the right thing to do.” The move was met with resounding applause by the two dozen or so of Moore’s supporters in the stands sporting green “Iron Joe” t-shirts. Moore’s uncle Joe Condon, a Bishop England grad, had passed away the week prior and a large contingent of family and friends in town for his funeral on Friday had made their way to Moore’s basketball game on Saturday. Moore scored 23 points in just over a half of play but saved the best for her encore. The all-state guard checked back in early in the fourth quarter and added two more baskets to land on 1,000 career points. Moore becomes just the ninth girl in the program’s 96-year history to score 1,000 points at Bishop England. “It was definitely special,” Moore said. “It’s kind of awesome to see how great God’s timing was. Hopefully it gave some of my relatives, who were really sad about my uncle, something to smile about.” Moore played sparingly her freshman season but as a sophomore contributed 425 points to the Bishops’ 2015 state championship team. She tallied more than 350 points her junior season while leading Bishop England to its third consecutive state title. She’s shooting 45 percent from inside the 3-point arc over the past three years and has made 98 total 3-pointers, the second-most of any player since the school started tracking the statistic in 1988. “She’s the complete package as a high school basketball player,” Runey said. “You obviously have to be a special kind of player to score that many points. It’s pretty darn outstanding. It requires a player with not only the skill and athleticism but the right work ethic. Scoring 1,000 points doesn’t just come naturally.” Moore is averaging 18 points per game for the top ranked Bishops this season. There’s a realistic chance, with 15 regular season games left to play before the postseason, that she could eventually surpass her sister, Mary Harriet, a 2014 graduate who ranks third on the school’s all-time girls scoring list with 1,328 points. “Oh man, she was talking smack to me about it this weekend, but I hadn’t done the math yet to realize how close the difference is,” Moore said. “Yes, I’m very interested in catching her.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Bishop England High School Athletics

BE'S MOORE NETS 1,000TH CAREER POINT

FRANKIE MANSFIELD

Moultrie News | 12/12/2016

PHOTO CREDIT: Frankie Mansfield