Pueblo standouts Alicia Reyes, Araceli Loya and Ilyssa Diamond Galindo are on the verge of passing the 1,000-career point mark in the same year. Almost unheard of.

Most teams have one or two main scorers at the most but having three can cause a defensive nightmare. Galindo is sitting with 786 points, Loya has 950 and Reyes is only two points away at 998 career points. Reyes scored 15 points Tuesday night to help lead her team to an 85-22 victory at Desert View but she also came close to ruining her plans for the week.

Coming in with 983 points, Reyes knew she was close but was hoping she could break the scoring mark at a home game so she was pulled with after making a 3-pointer with 6:58 left in the third quarter. Had it been a much closer game then she would have obviously stayed in.

“I thought about where I wanted to get 1,000 points and I wanted to get it at a home game,” Reyes said. “I’m just going to play my game and go for the win on Thursday but it will be exciting.”

Pueblo (6-1) will be hosting Sahuaro (6-2) on Thursday night. The Pueblo/Sahuaro matchup is the newest rivalry in Southern Arizona. The rivalry began three years ago, when the Warriors avenged an overtime loss in the regular season by beating the Cougars in the first round of the Division II, Section II tournament. Sahuaro still went on to the quarterfinals that year but the rivalry was set.

Sahuaro went 2-1 against Pueblo last year with each game decided by six or fewer points and Pueblo beat Sahuaro in the preseason Boyd Baker tournament this year. There is also a chance the two will meet for a third time once again in the Flowing Wells Invitational.

Only a junior, Reyes could break 1,500 career points but that is looking too far ahead. Loya is a senior and is expected to break 1,000 points in the next few games. A junior, Galindo is on pace to join the club near the end of the season.

Sahuaro senior guard Elena Arriaga has 843 career points.

If you recall, Reyes made 17 3-pointers in one game last year and scored 57 points in the process. The 17 buckets set a new state record and the 57 points (Cholla) was the third most scored by a girl in the history of Arizona basketball and the most since 1978.

Antelope’s Diane Beecroft scored 65 points in a game in 1977 (Bagdad) and she scored 58 points in a game in 1978 (Baboquivari).

In the game against Desert View, senior Myriam Navarro added 14 points, Loya scored 12 and Galindo scored 11. Angelina Talkalai led Desert View with 14 points.