By: Sean Moylan
Fifty two seconds into the second quarter of last Thursday’s game versus Middlesex, Carly Blanton darted a pass to a moving Lauren Jacobsen for an easy lay-up along the right side.
The Florence players on the floor and bench and coaches Vince Cipriano and George Chwastyk, all sporting looks of pure joy, stormed Jacobsen and gave her hugs of congratulations. Then Jacobsen’s family came to center court and greeted her with flowers, balloons and kisses.
And why not? The Florence senior center had just scored points number 1,000 and 1,001 of her career. And playoff game or not, the Flashes were going to celebrate a fantastic achievement.
The person sporting one of the biggest smiles was Florence senior guard-forward Caitlin Fitzpatrick, who had scored her 1,000th point only weeks before.
"I was just really happy for Lauren that she got her 1,000th point. We wanted her to get that for a while," said Fitzpatrick. "When I was going for it, it was really nerve-wracking. So I knew she was going to experience the same thing. That’s why we wanted her to get it in the beginning of the game so she could just let it roll off her back and she could play the game."
Florence’s plan to get Jacobsen a quick bucket didn’t work out although Fitzpatrick set her talented teammate up for a few attempts very early in the contest. Three out of Jacobsen’s first four shot attempts went halfway through the net and then popped out. If it was electronic basketball, Jacobsen’s first few shots would have registered as points as they hit the lever on the way down. But this was not a little kid’s game.
Moreover, everything went the Blue Jays’ way in this one, as they went on to capture a 42-40 come-from-behind decision over Florence.
"It’s not like they were bad shots. They were good shots," said Fitzpatrick, who scored 10 points herself, of Jacobsen’s first-quarter shots. "I know we were all nervous from the start because we never had a playoff win. We were real excited that we got the first seed this year. I think we worked as hard as we could on the court. Sometimes things didn’t go the way we wanted them to."
To get a better idea of how long Fitzpatrick, Jacobsen and fellow senior, Carly Blanton have been close friends, the first time the girls met up it might have been at a playground sandbox.
"I’ve been playing basketball with Caitlin since I was 5 years old and Carly too," said a teary-eyed Jacobsen "And Kiara Boone (Florence’s other senior starter) joined us two years ago from Life Center Academy."
In the coming weeks scoring over 1,000 points will grow to mean something more for Fitzpatrick and Jacobsen, but in the "Town of Champions" kids always want to win first and look at stats later.
"I’d rather have a playoff win than my 1,000th point," said Jacobsen, who scored 9 points to end her career with 1,008 points. She also set up Boone (11 points) for several beautiful lay-ups. The strange thing is you know she meant her words.
While Jacobsen is the talented presence in the middle, Fitzpatrick is the highly-skilled leader who can do anything, Boone is the master defender and team player and Jessica Foulks is a great open court shooter, no player epitomizes the heart and soul of Florence basketball more than Blanton. Like David Crosby in Crosby, Nash, Stills and Young she is the player who adds the harmony to Flashes basketball. She’s the one who often picks her spots and does the little things to get the Flashes over the top. So, understandably she took the playoff loss to Middlesex very hard.
"We had chemistry I haven’t seen on any other team, especially the three of us (Jacobsen, Blanton and Fitzpatrick). It was the hardest loss of my life. It shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have ended like this," said Jacobsen, wiping tears from her eyes.
Four years ago Cipriano came out of retirement to coach a very young Flashes team, after a 20-year coaching stint of coaching the team the first time around. It was a decision he has never regretted.
"It’s been a four-year journey. It’s never just a single game," said Cipriano, of Jacobsen and Fitzpatrick’s remarkable quest to score 1,000 plus points each.
"One of the worst parts about being a coach is saying goodbye to the seniors. These little kids were there 4 years ago and they promised they would stay for 4 years and I promised to stay for 4 years too. And I am getting up there in age. They were my loyal kids and I love them for it."
Playoff wins or not, a special era of basketball ended in Florence last Thursday, one of which was built around three young ladies by the name of Lauren Jacobsen, Caitlin Fitzpatrick and Carly Blanton.

