Bergerud and Palmer join 1,000 point club
In the span of little more than a month, two players have reached a milestone that had previously never been attained.
On Dec. 3, Megan Bergerud became the first female basketball player in UIS history to score 1,000 plus career points. Her time alone in the club was short-lived, as Alyssa Palmer became the second on Jan.16.
Bergerud, the 5-foot-11 guard out of Virginia, Ill., is no stranger to scoring baskets. She holds the all-time scoring record for both girl’s and boy’s basketball, and received numerous accolades from during high school. She began playing at UIS in 2010, where she was named a starter from day one, and hasn’t missed a game since. In addition to her skill on the court, she has been selected to the All-Academic GLVC team each year as well. As a junior, she was named to the All-GLVC second team. In December of 2013, she was named the “Star of the Month” by the UIS Department of Athletics, and in that month she averaged “17 points, five rebounds, and three assists per game.”
When asked if reaching the 1,000 point mark made her feel pressured to score more in each game she replied, “I don’t feel pressured, I know that if I’m not shooting well I have a lot of teammates that can pick me up. Other teams are going to scout me and guard me harder but I know my teammates can pick me up.”
Alyssa Palmer, the 5-foot-6 senior guard, is from Bloomington, Ill., where she attended University High School. There, she was a starter for all four years, and as a senior she was named the team MVP and led the team in scoring, assists, and steals and received All-State honorable mention by the Illinois Basketball Services. ESPN.com named her as one of Illinois’ top prospects coming out of high school. Palmer also arrived to UIS in 2010, but was not named a starter until 10 games into her freshman season.
Despite not starting for those 10 games, she led the team in scoring as a freshman. In the 2011-2012 season, she started in 20 of 26 games, led the team in points scored, is the all time leader in assists, set the record for free throws made with 13 consecutive in a game, finished 13th in the GLVC in scoring and 2nd in assists. She has also been named to the UIS Athletic Director’s Academic Honor Roll numerous times. She was named as a Star of the Month for the month of February in 2013 by averaging 12.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.3 steals per game, and scoring in double digits in 5 out of 7 games.
When asked about how she felt about her 1,000 career points she said, “It definitely feels good to have 1,000 points, to tell you the truth I honestly didn’t even know I was going to get 1,000 points, I kind of had a clue, but I wasn’t like ‘oh my gosh I gotta get a thousand points’ I just let it come to me as the season went on. I am more than happy just to create for my team.”
