BROCKWAY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Before the season started, Selena Buttery never entertained the notion of 1,000 career points.
A truncated junior season caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21 dashed whatever hopes the Brockway forward figured she had at reaching that milestone — one she had longed for since she could first dribble a basketball.
(Selena Buttery poses with the ball commemorating her 1,000 career points flanked by her mother, Suzane, and father, Steve)
“I honestly didn’t expect to get 1,000 points,” said Buttery, a senior. “At all.”
Instead, she focused on another impressive mark — 1,000 career rebounds. That was a goal squarely in her sights all season and she reached that mark Saturday.
Two days later at Curwensville, Buttery gazed up at the scoreboard at halftime and saw that she had 21 points.
Suddenly, 1,000 career points was well within her reach.
She needed 32 Monday night; She got 33 in the 62-24 blowout win. As a result, Buttery achieved one of the rarest of career double-doubles — 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
“It means the world to me to get both,” Buttery said. “That’s a dream I’ve had since I was in the fifth grade.”
To make it even sweeter, her mother, Suzane, was able to be there for both achievements.
Suzane Buttery is a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force Reserves and is away from home quite often.
In fact, when Buttery signed her national letters of intent to play both basketball and tennis at Chaminade University of Honolulu, Suzane looked on via FaceTime from New Mexico where she was deployed as part of Operation Allies Welcome.
“She missed every game from November through January, so her being able to make it at the end of my senior season is great,” Buttery said. “I think her being able to come at the end of my senior year is most important.”
Buttery is putting on a show for mom.
She is a threat all over the court.
With seemingly unlimited range, the 5-foot-10 Buttery has hit 47 3-pointers this season.
She’s also averaging 17 points, 12.5 rebounds and 4.1 blocked shots per game as a senior.
Buttery is still trying to process what she has been able to accomplish this season, the double milestones in particular.
“I don’t think I’ve really wrapped by head around it yet,” she said. “I mean, I’ve had a lot of people congratulating me in school and I’m like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ But I really haven’t grasped the whole thing yet. To actually achieve it, yeah, it hasn’t sunk in.”
Even when Buttery stares across her bedroom at the two painted basketballs commemorating her two achievements.
She said she is going to give the basketballs to the school to display in the Brockway trophy case.
“I know if they sit in my house, I’m not going to do anything with them,” she said, chuckling.
Buttery wants to add more to that school trophy case.
A District 9 title would be nice.
Brockway (15-6) is a dangerous team in Class 2A, because of Buttery and fellow senior Danielle Wood, who has piled up her own milestones this season.
Wood surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this season and also broke the school’s assists record.
“It’s one thing to have one player on your team achieve these things, but to have two is pretty special,” Buttery said. “It’s so much more meaningful. I get to share it with another person and our whole team has had a role in both of us reaching these milestones.
“But we want to win a district championship most of all,” Buttery added. “That’s something Brockway has never done.”
