Loera scores 1,000th point

MOSES LAKE — When the moment came it received its proper notice in front of her home crowd and with her Moses Lake Chiefs teammates.

Yet, when junior guard Jordan Loera took the basketball court Saturday night her main objective was to win and not celebrate the scoring of her 1,000th point the previous evening in a loss to Wenatchee.

So two hours later with a 74-22 win over Sunnyside at hand, the highly-recruited Loera took a moment.

Yeah, it was pretty cool.

“It was an honor and I was surprised when I heard about it since I didn’t even know,” Loera said. “I was more excited about us winning and us playing as a team and how we are supposed to. Scoring the 1,000th point? That was more of a plus.”

Loera was recognized in front of the home crowd by coach Matt Strophy.

So far in two-plus seasons with the Chiefs, Loera has scored 1,027 points for a 15.1 points-per-game average, including a career-game high of 34 points earlier this year against Gonzaga Prep.

Not bad for a young woman who began hanging out with the team during her sixth-grade year.

“She came in and practiced with us, which she could,” Strophy said. “She went through as much of the practice stuff we could get her in and I think she could play with us then.”

Strophy said his program began it’s ascension to the top of the basketball food chain back then and when Loera came about for the 2007-08 season the step-up was complete.

“The biggest difference when she came in as a freshmen was that we had a true point guard,”  Strophy said. “We had seen success before she got here, but when she got here she put us over the top. She had the basketballs skills, IQ, and savvy that we did not have until she got here.”

As she grows into the player she hopes to become, some of her teammates appreciate the work Loera put into their growth as well.

“It was really cool being there (for the celebration),” junior Katie Martinez said. “Learning from Jordan, she taught us so much stuff to do back in middle school. She pretty much schooled us.”

“It was good to be there with her when she got that honor.,” junior Margarita Munoz said. “We might not have been there for all of the 1,000 points but we were actually there when it happened and helped her with some parts of getting there.”

Loera also practices what she preaches by continually striving for self-improvement.

“There is always room for improvement no matter how good you are,” Loera said. “There is a room to evolve if I put my mind to it. I’m excited to see how far I could go.”

Some of those areas she hopes to improve on include taking her role as a teammate even higher.

“I need to be more vocal to my teammates and be a leader and communicate better with all of them and my coaches,” Loera said.

Still, even if Loera does all those things and improves her game on a physical level she may in fact not look back on the season with the 1,000th point first-and-foremost in her mind.

“I guess my relationship with my teammates and how we have become really close is more important,” she said. “That will help get us to play even better.”