Hamilton senior Jillian Spurlock doesn’t normally think about points.

The Miami University-bound 5-foot-9 junior, however, could not help herself as she stood at the free-throw line with the career scoring record on her fingertips and just 47 ticks left in Hamilton’s 58-36 home basketball loss to Sycamore on Saturday.

Both free throws rolled around the rim and fell away, leaving her with 1,013 career points – one shy of Angela Tolbert’s record set in 1999.

“They were telling me on the bench how many I needed and it got to me,” Spurlock said after finishing with 15 points. “I was trying not to focus on the point aspect, but the pressure got to me. I would rather just focus on winning ballgames.”

Spurlock, who entered averaging 20.9 points, early on collected the two points she needed to become the school’s third girls basketball player to reach 1,000 for a career. After driving and drawing a foul, she hit both free throws and time was stopped as athletic director Mike Dellapina presented her with a special ball for reaching 1,000 points.

“It is cool to get 1,000 points, but I wanted to win the game,” Spurlock said. “My teammates, coaches and family have gotten me to this point.”

Spurlock’s free throws cut the Sycamore lead to 5-4, but the Aviators would close the quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 16-6 advantage. Spurlock was held off the board in the second quarter, but Savannah Conrad stepped up and hit two huge 3-pointers, the last with four seconds left that cut the deficit to 25-22 until Sycamore drained a half-court shot as the horn sounded for a six-point halftime lead.

“Things started to go our way toward the end of the second quarter,” Hamilton coach Jill Meiring said. “They hit that half-court shot and that changed some things, but we tried to figure out how to get Jillian more open looks.”

Spurlock was1-for-5 from the floor in the first half and finished 5-for-20 as she was constantly stalked by one Aviator with two others closing in on her whenever she had the ball.

“It is definitely different when you have people hanging all over you,” Spurlock said. “All of this is exciting, but I would rather get back to just focusing on basketball.”

Sycamore led 40-29 at the end of the third quarter before closing the game with an 18-7 fourth quarter.

Spurlock enters Tuesday night’s game at home against Wayne needing two points to become Hamilton’s career scoring leader.

“I think she is just trying to make it interesting for the end of the year,” Meiring said. “Sycamore knew what she needed (to break the record) and they did everything they could so it did not happen against them. She is nearing the peak and the closer you get, the harder it gets to get over it.”