It was a night for career milestones.
Caitlin Anderson found out she was close to reaching hers just a few days ago. Brad Conway knew about his since before the start of the season.
It was a happy coincidence they came on the same night.
"You always want things like this to happen when you're at home, in front of your home crowd," Conway said after leading the Jefferson City Lady Jays to a 60-22 victory Wednesday night against the Sedalia Smith-Cotton Lady Tigers at Fleming Fieldhouse.
Anderson, a senior who has signed to play at Indiana State next season, reached the 1,000-point plateau for her career in the game. Conway, who selected Anderson to be Jefferson City's starting point guard in his first game as coach at Jefferson City three-plus seasons ago, picked up career victory No. 500.
"It's great that we get to share a night like this together," Anderson said.
It didn't take long for Anderson to reach her milestone, getting points 1,000 and 1,001 on a layup with 4:25 remaining in the first quarter.
At 5-foot-6, Anderson has never been shy about driving to the basket among the bigger defenders to get her points.
"I was really happy it came on a layup because that's really where it all started for me," she said.
Conway had to wait for his milestone to be reached until the final buzzer sounded.
"My brother had been keeping track of it, so going into the season I was pretty sure it was going to happen," he said. "I just didn't know when, I'm a little surprised it happened so early this season."
Like they have in most of their home games this season, the Lady Jays (9-0), ranked No. 1 in Class 5, dominated from the start. They opened the game on a 10-2 run, capped by Anderson's layup, on their way to an 18-6 lead after the first quarter.
But it wasn't all great for Jefferson City. Conway called a timeout a little less than three minutes into the game because he didn't like what he was seeing.
"We were just sloppy with the basketball," he said. "We weren't doing what we wanted to do on offense.
"But once we settled down, we starting playing better."
The second quarter turned out to be much like the first, with Jefferson City outscoring Smith-Cotton 18-6. A putback by Anderson with :01 left gave the Lady Jays a 36-12 halftime advantage.
Anderson's work on the boards can go unnoticed many nights, but not by Conway.
"Right now, she's our second leading rebounder," he said.
If there were any doubts Conway was one half away from win No. 500, they went away in the first three minutes of the third quarter.
Jefferson City switched to a half-court trap at the start of the second half and Smith-Cotton had turnovers on its first six possessions. On the other side, the Lady Jays scored on six of their first seven possessions to extend their lead to 49-12.
It was the first time the Lady Jays had used that defense this season.
"We just threw that in during the last few minutes of practice (Tuesday) night," Conway said. "I had wanted to look at it in practice because our length can really cause problems for a lot of teams."
The Lady Jays took a 57-20 advantage into the fourth quarter, which was played with a running clock.
Kara Daly came off the bench to share team-high scoring honors with Anderson with 12 points.
"Kara's an X-factor for us," Conway said. "She's athletic enough she can guard a perimeter player, but she's strong enough to guard a post player. And she can run the floor on offense."
Micah Linthacum added 10 points for Jefferson City, while Sarah Linthacum led the team with five rebounds.
Sophie Martin had seven points and seven rebounds to lead Smith-Cotton (2-7).
Jefferson City is off until Thursday, Dec. 27, when it takes on Blue Springs South in the opening round of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse. Game time is 2:30 p.m.
In Wednesday's JV game, Sakkrya King scored 16 points as Jefferson City downed Smith-Cotton 54-11.