History was made Tuesday night at Crosby-Ironton High School, where the Rangers’ Tori Oehrlein broke the Minnesota girls’ basketball individual career scoring record of 5,060 points set by Rebekah Dahlman in 2013.
Records are made to be broken, and it felt as if senior guard Oehrlein was going to break the girls’ all time state-scoring record since she’s been on varsity as a seventh grader at C-I. Last Friday, she eclipsed the 5,000-point mark at Ogilvie, putting herself just 32 points shy of Dahlman’s record.
She came into tonight’s home game against Mille Lacs averaging just over 35 points a game, so it was expected she would get it. The moment finally came late in the first half, and Oehrlein would finish with 57 points as the Rangers got the win.
Rebekah Dahlman, whose record Oehrlein broke, was in attendance as well to congratulate her in front of what felt like the entire town of Crosby.
“It meant a lot,” Oehrlein said after the game. “It means a lot to wear Crosby across my chest, and I think this town is a basketball town and I’m just glad that girls’ basketball is on the map again for Crosby and not just boys’ [basketball]. And I think we can keep it going, and I’m just grateful that I get to do it with Crosby-Ironton.”
On what the achievement feels like for her, she added, “It’s a little bit hard for me to believe because, I don’t know, I feel like for me, it wasn’t like scoring was a big thing for me. And it’s just like, passing, rebounding, doing all the little things in the game, and then just like, knowing that the team needed me to score more was like how it happened. And I just am grateful. I wouldn’t be able to do it without my teammates.”
Oehrlein now holds the career state records in rebounds and points, and she’s second in the state in steals. She also holds a career quadruple-double in those categories.