Sara Burzycki’s mindset playing basketball growing up typically wasn’t about scoring.
She was looking to bring energy, to play defense and to grab rebound after rebound.
But as the St. Laurence senior guard recovered from a serious knee injury over the last year, she vowed to make the most of the time recovering.
“I don’t know really what it was. I don’t think my shot was too good over the last few years,” Burzycki said. “I was never a great shooter or great scorer. After I got injured and was out so long, it made me want to do everything. It was a lot of working on my shot.”
Burzycki has put that time to good use.
Continuing to put those shooting struggles in the past, Burzycki finished with 16 points, including four 3-pointers, as host St. Laurence defeated IC Catholic 63-45 on Jan. 22.
Senior Ciyah Thomas powered the Vikings with 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.
The win clinched the GCAC White title outright for St. Laurence. It is the first conference title for the girls basketball program since the school went co-ed for the 2017-18 academic year.
“It’s awesome,” Burzycki said. “Ever since freshman year, we’ve always had struggles, injuries, stuff like that. It feels really good to be where we are and beating teams we need to beat.”
For Burzycki, it’s been quite the last year-plus.
In her junior year, she tore her left ACL and meniscus during flag football, causing her to miss the entire basketball season.
This year, she hurt her knee again during flag football but not severely. She returned on a minutes-limit but received clearance in early January to resume activity with no limitation.
All the while, though, Burzycki was in the gym perfecting her jumper.
“It was a lot of working on my shot,” Burzycki said. “When I could run, it was easy to shoot around. It was standing at a basket and form shooting. I took so many free throws. The more shooting I did, the better I got.”
Coach Claire Austin was proud of Burzycki’s effort.
“Shooting was all she did. She can’t sit still,” Austin joked. “Even with the ACL, she’d stand and shoot at practice. Her shot has gotten so much better over the last year. Sara always had a ball in her hand.”
Burzycki hit two 3-pointers each in the first and second half against IC Catholic.
St. Laurence led by as many as 17 points early in the third quarter.
“I felt really good shooting today,” Burzycki said. “The past two games I hadn’t been shooting great. It was fixing it, learning from it. It’s confidence too. When I feel confident and good enough to shoot, I get in a rhythm.”
St. Laurence was without star junior Aaliyah Flores, who is out with an injury. She is expected back before the state playoffs.
Austin, a Marist alum, is in her third season as head coach. She said it was a big moment to clinch the White outright.
“We look at the banner in the gym. We’ve won three regionals and two are ours (since Austin got there),” Austin said. “No conference up there. We’ve been looking at it all week and talking about etching this team’s name into program history. It’s super special they get to do that.”
Sophomore Emily Doorhy (nine points) and senior Sienna Randall (six points) also chipped in for the Vikings.