Sunapee
When they did, the Sunapee senior didn’t waste any time putting her name in the Sherburne Gym rafters on a banner that is rapidly running out of room.
Larpenter, with her teammates spending each possession actively feeding her the ball, sank a 3-pointer from just in front of the seats 97 seconds into the Lakers’ 67-14 win over Wilton-Lyndeborough on Friday. She became the 18th athlete in school history to reach 1,000 career points, its sixth since 2014.
“To me it was just, if it happened, it happened,” she said. “I was just glad to have it happen here. … It wasn’t on my radar.”
Scoring runs in the Larpenter family. Her father, Dean, was a 1,000-point scorer for Wilton-Lyndeborough. Her brother, Shawn, and her sister, Stephanie, both reached the same milestone for Sunapee. To Faith, the youngest, scoring 1,000 is picking up a family tradition.
“It feels really great,” Larpenter said. “A lot of people have talked to me like, ‘You’re going to do it; it’s in your family.’ … That’s not really my main focus. Being a part of such a great team like this, getting as far as we’ve gotten in the past couple of years, I think that’s, by far, more special than getting a single recognition.”
Her role, Sunapee head coach Tim LaTorra said, has shifted to fit Sunapee’s needs, but her leadership off the court has been crucial to the team, a quality that Larpenter attributed to watching from the sidelines her freshman season after suffering a torn left ACL.
Larpenter was only a little nervous before Friday’s game, though it didn’t show. She scored on a layup 6 seconds in, added another layup off a turnover seconds later and blasted the 3-pointer to end the anticipation building from the crowd, which gave a collective groan the few times she missed.
She was greeted by 1980s hit song Celebration! by Kool & The Gang over the loudspeakers and her teammates at center court, including the Lakers’ Katie Frederick, who reached the 1,000-point mark last season. With the game paused, Larpenter was then greeted by her brother and sister, who helped reveal Larpenter’s name already listed on Sunapee’s 1,000 point banner.
“All the success we’ve had, all the individual accomplishments, every single one has been different and special,” LaTorra said.
Larpenter finished with a game-high 24 points, including six 3-pointers, once again leading the undefeated Lakers in an offense that is outscoring opponents by a collective 472 points this season. Frederick netted 16 points, and Mary Grzanna added 10.
Larpenter insisted that her success comes from the collective play of her teammates, a group of athletes that also has found athletic success in girls soccer and softball in their Sunapee careers.
“Everyone is looking for that extra pass,” she said. “No one is selfish. We’re all there to play for each other. I think that has helped us. For all our individual success, it’s because of the team that we get this far.”
LaTorra admitted his team’s success, and individual success of his athletes, is an unprecedented streak that likely will not be repeated anytime soon. But with his team 10-0, it’s hard not to be in awe.
“It’s incredible,” LaTorra said. “I grew up in (Windsor Locks) Connecticut. We go down there every year; we go to my high school. The last guy to score 1,000 points was in 1988. It’s a lot bigger school. They say, ‘Why don’t you have as many 1,000-point scorers?’ I say, ‘Well, it’s kind of hard.’
“These guys, they’ve just been so fortunate to be in these kinds of situations where they get to experience team success and individual accomplishments. This is a great place to be.”
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.