High school girls basketball: Existing members welcome Ingersoll to Mexico’s 1,000-point club

She became the fourth player in school history to achieve the milestone and is the third 1,000-point scorer from the girls program.

Her accomplishment was celebrated prior to last Saturday’s home win over Phoenix and Ingersoll was surprised with the presence of each of her predecessors.

“It was a pretty cool feeling, ever since I was in fifth grade, that was my goal, and when COVID happened, things felt a little iffy, but I was still trying to go for it,” Ingersoll said.

“I just want to thank all my teammates,” she added. “This team is amazing and the best I’ve played with, we’re all like best friends, super close, and I couldn’t be more thankful for them.”

Ingersoll became the first Mexico player to surpass the coveted scoring mark since Kendra Harter (1,077 career points) in 2016.

She also joined 2006 graduate Kristina Laverty (1,114) for girls team representatives and 2005 grad Kyle Reuter (1,676) from the boys squad.

All three former standouts joined Ingersoll at center-court for last Saturday’s recognition and each spoke to the newest member of their exclusive club prior to the festivities.

“That was pretty cool,” Ingersoll said. “I had only met Kendra (Harter) before, she was just leaving the program as I was coming up, so it was really cool to get to meet all of them.”

Ingersoll needed 14 points approaching the Homer game and finished with 31 to enter last Saturday with 1,017 career points.

She surpassed the landmark with a free throw and a timeout was called quickly after as her teammates surrounded their star point guard on the court.

Several students made the trip to cheer on the monumental feat and brought signs to mark the occasion, some even painting Ingersoll’s name across their respective torsos.

“They’re always supporting me, going to home and away games, driving over an hour to support our team, it was just huge,” Ingersoll said.

“To be completely honest, I was just happy we got it over with and I could focus on the game, and thankfully we came out with the win.”

Mexico coach Dominick Anthony compared the crowd to that of a home game and said they helped Mexico recover from an early deficit to secure the win on Ingersoll’s historic night.

“That was incredible, and I think that speaks volumes to the kind of person that she is more than the basketball player,” Anthony said. “She has that support and people want her to do well.”

Ingersoll is in her fourth varsity season as a starter from the onset and averaging more than 20 points per game as a senior. She reached the milestone despite her sophomore season being condensed to 10 games due to COVID-19 concerns.

Ingersoll has also been a standout in girls lacrosse and spends much of her offseason racing motocross.

Anthony, in his seventh season as head coach, credited Ingersoll and her fellow seniors for being the first to collectively commit to the sport year-round through offseason travel teams.

Mexico is guaranteed to produce its third straight winning season after going 6-14 in Ingersoll’s freshman year. The Tigers tallied just four total wins in the prior three seasons combined.

“You can see the change and so much of that is because of her and the rest of those seniors,” Anthony said. “She’d be the first to tell you she can’t do it by herself and even though this is Anyssia’s accomplishment, it feels more like a program and team accomplishment.”

Ingersoll said that her personal milestone was made more special by the accompanying team success.

The Tigers ended the regular season with a 17-3 record and were expected to be among the top seeds for the Section 3 Class B playoffs with preliminary rounds underway this weekend.

Mexico is chasing its highest win total since finishing 19-6 during the 2009 season which marked its most recent sectional championship.

“It’s the group of kids, it’s the chemistry, the culture, the commitment, I think you have to have all those things aligned and that’s what we’ve been able to have this year,” Anthony said. “We’ve had young kids fill in, we put in more time this offseason, and I think all those things create the recipe for the success we’re having.”