Talk about being under the radar.
Sure, Barnstable High School girls basketball star Molly Bent is the state's leading scorer this season, averaging 27.32 points per game, but she's done so with little fanfare and with a displayed, humble sense of putting her team before personal achievement.
Bent, who's been in the Red Raider starting lineup since 8th grade, has 977 career points and is poised to hit the 1,000-point milestone in Barnstable's first MIAA Division 1 South Sectionals. When she reaches that mark, she will be the first Red Raider basketball player in school history to reach that milestone as a sophomore. It's a milestone usually reserved for seniors who've led a fantastic four-year career and only 10 Barnstable players - male and female - have reached that mark.
"It's funny because I don't even think she's aware of it," said Kathy Bent, Molly's mom and a former collegiate swimming coach who's raised four children in Centerville along with her Red Raider Head Coach George Bent. "The only thing she's talked about is wanting the team to advance in the postseason one game further than they did last year."
Bent has 519 points thus far this season for an average of 27.32 points per game and is just shy of Morgan Kendrew's school record for most points scored in one season - Kendrew, who last year completed a brilliant four-year career at Brandeis University, netted 522 points in the 2007-08 season while leading the Red Raiders to an OCL championship and 18-5 record.
Kendrew - a lock for the BHS Athletic Hall of Fame when she's eligible for induction in 2017 - is Barnstable's all-time leading point scorer (male & female) with 1,544 career points. Kendrew edged longtime record-holder and BHS Hall of Famer Tania McIntyre for the all-time scoring mark in her senior year. McIntyre, the number two all-time scorer, finished with 1,534 points and went onto a bright collegiate career at North Carolina A&T.
Bent is just three points shy of tying the 11th all-time scorer - Mary Lewis - who finished with 980 career points in 1953 and is also enshrined in the BHS Athletic Hall of Fame.
And she has two more seasons beyond this one to leave her legacy.
Earlier this year, Bent set the new school mark for most points scored in one game by a Red Raider basketball player - 42 - against Nauset on January 8, 2013.
McIntyre finished her junior season with 1,042 points and netted another 492 points her senior year. Bent scored 181 points as an 8th grader in 19 games, 277 points her freshman year (21 games) and, as stated above, has 519 points in 19 games thus far this season.