Cara Thomas has played a role in plenty of milestone moments for Northwestern Lehigh basketball.

When Paige Sevrain hit the 1,000-pointmilestone, it was Thomas that got the assist on the play.

Later, when Sevrain became the all-time leading scorer in Northwestern’s girl’s program, it was again Thomas that got the ball to her for the record-setting point.

With Sevrain gone, Thomas is now the one putting her name in the top spot among the scoring milestones.

Last season, Thomas became the first Northwestern junior to reach the 1,000-point milestone, and this season she scored 26 points against Pen Argyl to surpass Sevrain’s mark of 1,258 career points to take the top spot among scorers.

“It was really exciting, but mostly I felt grateful,” said Thomas. “I am so grateful to all of the teammates I have had, and the coaches I have had since I was just a little kid. They all helped me to get where I am, and I can’t forget my family who have always supported me and helped me along the way. It’s also feels good because the hard work I have put into the game has paid off, and that’s a great feeling.”

Thomas had a huge junior season when she scored 438 points. To put that in perspective, Sevrain’s best season was also her junior season in 2021-22 when she scored 389 points. The two players were close when they were teammates, and after breaking Sevrain’s record, Thomas received a call from her old friend, who is now playing basketball at Bloomsburg.

“It was so nice. She was very supportive and congratulated me,” said Thomas. “We have always been supportive of each other, and it was great to hear from her, and it was so nice that she called me to congratulate me.”

Thomas has not let up on her scoring, and through the team’s win over Jim Thorpe on Wednesday night, she stands at 1,429 career points. The number is significant, since there is one more Northwestern Lehigh scoring record that is within reach of Thomas in her senior season, and that’s the all-time scoring mark for Northwestern basketball, which stands at 1,451 points and belongs to 2001 graduate Steve Showers.

The Lady Tigers have one regular season game, and at least two postseason games in the league and district playoffs, and likely more than that. That means that Thomas needs just eight points per game to reach the mark if they only play two postseason games, which is an unlikely number considering the success the team has had this season.

“I don’t focus on that (the scoring record). It’s only when someone brings it up that I really think about it,” said Thomas, whose team has won 20 straight games and is 20-1 on the season. “I focus more on my team and our team goals. We’re playing really well right now, and reaching our goals there is more important to me.”

With the exit of Sevrain following the 2023 season, Thomas became the go-to player for the Tigers on offense, but they still had scoring options in the form of Brook Balliet and Olivia Reinhart. This season, freshman Natalie Conner has been added to the mix offensively to give Northwestern an even greater scoring punch.

“Natalie took on a scoring role for us, and that’s really been huge for us because it gives us another option,” said Thomas. “Every game we go out there I think that we all feel comfortable because none of us has to do it all. There are other players who pick us up if we have an off night or if the other team shuts someone down, we just go to someone else to pick up the slack. Our team really works well together, and we are really close on and off the court, and we have a lot of girls who are able to make passes to move the ball around.”

Thomas’ scoring often overshadows what she does defensively. In fact, the entire team has a strong defensive mindset, and they enter each game thinking as much or more about shutting down their opponent than they do about how many points they can put on the board.

That final scoring mark lays somewhere down the road for Thomas.

Of course, maybe 1,451 points is not the final frontier.

With an extended run in the postseason, perhaps the 1,500-mark is in play for the Northwestern senior.