Chelsea Rafferty became the third player in the history of the Lowell Catholic girls' basketball program to reach 1,000 points with an 18-point performance in Sunday's 52-37 victory over Matignon.

Rafferty now joins her mother, Donna (Cavanaugh) Rafferty, who was a 1,000-point scorer in high school at Presentation of Mary Academy in Hudson, N.H., graduating in 1984. She was later a scholarship athlete at the University of Hawaii.

The senior reached the milestone with a jumper in the first quarter.

Haley McGuire, the second player in program history to reach the plateau, was in attendance to support Rafferty. McGuire played at UMass Boston before transferring to UMass Lowell last fall.

A 5-foot-8 senior center, Rafferty is averaging 18 points and 13 rebounds per game this season. after earning Catholic Central Conference MVP honors last season.

"She's played even better this year," said her coach, Tom Varnon. "She has great low post moves and she's really tough underneath the basket.

"She;s kind of a throwback player. I'd say she has no more than 15 3-pointers in her career, so she gets most of her points in the paint and at the free throw line."

Off the court, Rafferty has a 4.0 grade-point-average and is the president of the student council. The team captain is still undecided on where she'll go to college in the fall, but she's already made up her mind on a direction for her career.

"She wants to be a high school English teacher," said Varnon, "which means a lot to me, because that's what I am."