MONTVILLE — Juliana O’Dowd hasn’t been able to escape from the 1,000-point club.
When she walked into the gym at Parsippany Hills her freshman year, there was “a huge sign” and basketballs with each player’s name painted on them. Not much changed when her family moved to Montville. O’Dowd was still faced with acknowledgements of 1,000-point scorers.
Now, her name will finally join theirs.
The 5-foot-10 senior point guard scored her 1,000th career point with a step-back jumper early in the first quarter of the Mustangs’ 56-37 victory against visiting Pequannock on Tuesday. Her cheering section consisted of dozens of family members, including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and her parents, Jim and Jocelyn O’Dowd, who are both Montville High School alumni.
Juliana slowly backed away as the ball went through the hoop, and was surrounded by teammates at mid-court. She was given silver balloons spelling out 1,000 and multiple posters. After the game came green-frosted cupcakes shaped into the milestone mark.
“It was exciting, and definitely a relief,” said O’Dowd, a three-year starter who led all scorers with 23 points on Tuesday.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to achieve. Walking through the high school, and looking and seeing people with 1,000 points, I wanted that for myself. It shows how much work I’ve put in the past four years.”
Another goal still to come
Laurel Donohue, one of four cousins at the high school together, manned the Mustangs’ stat book, making sure Juliana’s points were correctly reflected on the scoreboard. Many of the family fan club wore black T-shirts with a photo of 5-year-old Juliana dunking on the front, which was designed by her mom and printed by older brother, James O’Dowd, who had to go back to college on Monday and missed the game.
But Juliana isn’t done. She wants to score all 1,000 at Montville High School, supplanting the 174 points she got at Parsippany Hills.
“She always loved sports, and basketball was her No. 1,” said anxious grandmother Pat O’Dowd, who sat in a row of family at the top of the Montville bleachers. “She has a wonderful attitude about it. She never gets down on her teammates. She’s not a ball hog. … Maybe (1,000 points) was on her radar, but I had no idea how many points she had. I’m glad she did it early.”
Path to a Montville milestone
Jim O’Dowd had an inkling of his daughter’s skill from a young age, as she grew up surrounded by older brother James and the neighborhood boys. When her father would come to pick Juliana up from aftercare at St. Pius X Elementary School in Montville, she’d be the only girl on the basketball court, “kind of running circles around (the boys). You’d have to wait 10 minutes for the game to end.”
Already James’ rec coach, Jim O’Dowd started coaching Juliana in basketball – a sport he’d never played – when she was in kindergarten. She also tried soccer, baseball, softball, “whatever it was,” when she was young.
In sixth grade, O’Dowd added field hockey to her list at the suggestion of middle-school gym teacher Carol Rushing. O’Dowd was Montville’s leading scorer this past fall with 14 goals and nine assists.
In addition to high school basketball, O’Dowd started AAU in eighth grade, playing with the New Jersey Panthers for two years before moving to United AAU as a junior.
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“She just loved it,” said Jim O’Dowd, who had played soccer and lacrosse at Montville. “After her sophomore year, you look at what she did and said, ‘If she does that for another two years, she’ll get it. She was on pace for it. We’re all really proud of her. She’s put in the time and the effort.”
O’Dowd is the seventh Montville girl to score 1,000 career points, a list led by Kelly O’Reilly – the program’s all-time leading scorer, male or female, with 1,774. O’Dowd was a sophomore starter when the Mustangs had their last 1,000-point scorer: point guard Grace Kowalski in a Morris County Tournament semifinal.
Lately, O’Dowd has been drawing a lot of comparisons to Kowalski. O’Dowd was a self-described “little baby” as a sophomore, looking up to the senior class. She was the Mustangs’ leading scorer and rebounder as a junior, but let then-senior point guard Jackie Cinella take the leadership role. But as a senior, O’Dowd has stepped up as both Montville’s point guard and the vocal guide of an inexperienced roster.
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“She’s going the full length of the court, setting up the offense, or getting a steal and getting us going,” Mustangs first-year head coach Gabriel Rios said. “It’s a credit to her basketball IQ, understanding what needs to be done. … Watching her continue into a new role, watching her throw those transition passes, it’s like a blast from the past. But Juliana’s got her own swag too.”
