LEWISTON — Elsa Daulerio couldn’t have surpassed 1,000 career points at a better time.
The game was tied with 29 seconds left in overtime when the Bates senior center grab a rebound of a shot by Sophie Spolter and scored on the putback. The Bobcats held on for a 70-66 women’s basketball win over the University of Southern Maine on Tuesday evening at a packed Alumni Gym.
Daulerio, a Harpswell resident and Mt. Ararat High alum, finished with 16 points. The go-ahead bucket gave her 1,001 career points. She is one of 22 players in the history of the program to reach 1,000 career points, and the second in her family.
Daulerio’s mother, Adrienne Shibles, who starred at Bates from 1987-91, finished her career with 1,005 points. A two-time captain, Shibles went on to a successful coaching career at Swarthmore, Bowdoin and Dartmouth College.
“It means so much,” Daulerio said. “I love her so much. She’s been my idol since I was a little girl. I always looked up to her, and she’s been my No. 1 supporter, along with my family. It’s just so special and I’m honored to be up there with her. She’s the hardest worker I know.”
Shibles, who is associate director of athletics at Bates and a part-time assistant with the men’s basketball team, was on hand to watch her daughter join her in the 1,000-point club.
“I’m so happy for her,” Shibles said, who graduated from Mount View in Thorndike. “(When I hit the mark), I felt a lot of pressure. I was supposed to get it at Colby (College in Waterville), which would have been right in my backyard. I did not perform as well as I could have. I was feeling for her. I hope she’s not putting that pressure on her. It was such a great opponent in USM for this game. They were doing some pretty smart defensive things. But I felt she kept her composure, even when her shots weren’t falling. She was just grinding to the end.”
Shibles said she didn’t talk with Daulerio about the milestone.
“In fact, I told Aaron (Moore, Bates associate athletic communications director), ‘Could you stop putting that in press releases?’ Shibles said. “I avoided talking to her about it. I think Elsa finds joy in the team play, in assisting the basketball, rebounding, not just scoring the basket. I know sometimes, when (the focus) is on you, it takes away from the team aspect.”
Early on Tuesday, it didn’t look like Daulerio would reach the mark. She had just one point in the first half.
“Going into halftime, I was pretty (ticked) off, just at myself,” Daulerio said. “I had a great moment with my coach (Alison Montgomery), and she just told it like it was, ‘You need to get to contact, you’re not getting calls. Go into (defenders), that’s what they’re doing to you.’ She just held me accountable, and it got me fired up to go through that contact in the second half, get those calls and finish through the contact.”
Shibles, a member of the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame who coached at Bowdoin from 2008-2021 and led the Polar Bears to the NCAA Division III tournament 11 times, said their is no question who is the better player.
“She’s so much better,” Shibles said. “I’m so proud of her. She’s really skilled and really good on both ends of the floor. I was really just a defensive specialist. Rebounding and defense were more of my thing. A lot of my points, I joke about it, but they really did come from bunnies, offensive rebounds, just grinding in the paint and doing the hard work. She’s got more of her dad in her, which is really great.”
Daulerio’s father, Kirk Daulerio, scored 1,063 points at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania from 1991-95.
“She says that all the time,” Daulerio said with a laugh. “I wish I could see her play, but I know she was one of the hardest workers. I know she has more rebounds than me, I can say that. It’s great that she says that, but we’re both good players.”
Montgomery, a former assistant coach under Shibles at Bowdoin, has watched Daulerio since her star was four years old.
“This is a coach’s dream,” Montgomery said. “I got my start in coaching with Adrienne when her daughters where young. To have this opportunity to built on that relationship, be her coach and have layers of trust there with Adrienne, with Elsa and her family is something special.”