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Something grand for them to share

— As she waited for the start of Sunday's basketball game, Carolyn Freeman glanced at faces in the crowd. She spotted mom and dad. She recognized a couple more people who found seats on the bleachers inside Bowdoin College's Morrell Gymnasium.

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Jack Milton/Staff Photographer: Ashley Marble, first year assistant coach of the women's baketball team at St. Joseph's College, talks with player Carolyn Freeman, Saturday, January 24, 2009, during a game against Albertus Magnus College.

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And a few more. Soon, Freeman could identify dozens more friends and family. ''That's when I knew something was up. This was the game people expected me to break 1,000 points. All season I've tried to ignore it. I haven't kept count.''

Freeman is a senior guard for St. Joseph's College. She's a co-captain more concerned with the Monks reaching the postseason than her reaching 1,000 points. ''I never really made it my goal. Everybody has a shot at 1,000. I'm the 19th to do it.''

She's simply the most recent women's player at St. Joseph's to claim the milestone, she says, smiling. She wasn't the first. The first name on any list carries its own distinction and that goes to her mother, Linda (Johnson) Freeman. Mom scored 1,560 points when she finished playing in 1981. She averaged 19.7 points a game.

Mom was the St. Joseph's star when games were played in the claustrophobic Chamber of Horrors and the women dressed in a restroom. When much of the schedule was with other in-state schools, including the University of Maine.

When Title IX was still opening doors for female student-athletes after years of enduring second-class status or no status at all. When the St. Joseph's sports information director, Corey McCarthy, tried to put the mother-daughter accomplishment at the same school into perspective, he came up with Courtney Porzio joining her mom on the 1,000-point banner in 2006 at Cedar Crest College in Pennsylvania. That's the list.

Carolyn Freeman had no intention of making this list four years ago. As a McAuley High senior, she studied her college options. She wanted to major in elementary education, play basketball and get away from home. Massachusetts would be far enough.

Linda Freeman is a guidance counselor at McAuley. She's also the freshmen girls' coach and helps Wil Smith coach the varsity. Mom kept suggesting St. Joe's. Carolyn couldn't turn to her father. Max also graduated from St. Joseph's.

''I knew what my mother did here,'' said Carolyn. ''I wanted to create my own name.''

Don't get the idea that Linda was trying to relive her playing days. In the Freeman house you'd be hard-pressed to find signs Mom had played. ''I think there's an old trophy or two in the junk room,'' said Carolyn. ''That's it. You've got to go to my grandmother's house if you want to see anything about my mom's basketball career.''

Sunday, at the Coastal Maine Classic at Bowdoin, Freeman had 992 points. She didn't know until seeing all the familiar faces in the bleachers made her understand. About 40 friends and family were there.

''I was pretty nervous during warm-ups. This was getting old.''

Late in the game against Skidmore, Freeman went to the foul line for two shots. Hit both and she would hit 1,000. She missed one shot and out of the corner of her eye saw hand-held signs quickly disappear. With about three minutes left, Coach Mike McDevitt took her out of the game.

He had no idea Freeman was one point away. It wouldn't have made a difference. Skidmore had subbed in players, it was still a winnable game for St. Joseph's, and part of McDevitt's adjustments was taking Freeman out.

''I went back in and I knew I had to be close (to 1,000). I didn't want to make everyone go to Boston (Thursday night against Emmanuel) to see me do it. So when I got an offensive rebound, I made sure it was going in.''

In the bleachers, Linda Freeman relaxed, her nervousness gone. ''I wanted her to get it so she could move on.''

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at:

ssolloway@pressherald.com