Camryn Veltrop breaks 3 more Morrison career records: Sauk Valley girls basketball notes

Despite losing a large chunk of her senior season to injury, Morrison senior Camryn Veltrop is leaving her mark in more ways than one.

Veltrop, who was Morrison’s all-time leading scorer among girls entering the season, recently passed Rod Bush’s career scoring mark of 1,601 points to become the school’s all-time leading scorer. Veltrop is at 1,622 points and counting.

Camryn also passed her older sister, Shelby, for the career rebounding record at 947 in a win over Forreston. In the same game, she was 7 for 7 at the line to pass Sarah Backus' career free-throws record of 289 made. Camryn was 290 of 384 (76%) in her career after the win.

Camryn said breaking the rebounding record was not something she ever really prioritized. Scoring was her main priority, but she recognizes the importance of rebounding.

“Rebounding is such an important part of basketball, and I really started to take pride in it this year,” the 6-foot-3 Veltrop said. “In games where you might not be making your shots or doing well offensively, rebounding is almost just as important.

“Everyone always thinks that the tallest player on the court is [the one] who gets the most rebounds, but it really is the person who has the heart and hustle to get them.”

Shelby previously owned the career scoring mark before Camryn passed her older sister, who continued her playing career at Sauk Valley Community College.

“People always ask what it is like to break my sister’s records,” Camryn said. “I always answer with how awesome it feels to break the record of someone who I have always looked up to. She is who made me the player I am, and being able to break her record is a great feeling.”

Camryn, who was the Sauk Valley Media Girls Basketball Player of the Year as a junior, broke her pinkie finger at the beginning of the season and initially thought she would miss the rest of the year.

The Fillies started 0-22 before Veltrop made her return to game action in a 54-24 win over Milledgeville on Jan. 22. Morrison has since won four of its past five games heading into the final stretch of the season.

Sterling in Big 6 driver’s seat: The Sterling girls control their own destiny in the Western Big 6 Conference with three games to go. Ranked No. 6 in the latest Class 3A Associated Press poll, the Golden Warriors are 23-5 and 10-1 in the Big 6 heading into Thursday night’s game against United Township (1-26, 0-11 Big 6).

Sterling, which has never won the Big 6 since joining the conference in 2019, then plays Saturday at Moline before hosting Rock Island on Feb. 13.

Second-place Galesburg (9-2 in conference) plays at Geneseo before hosting Rock Island and Alleman.

Sterling is coming off a 42-40 win over Quincy in which Delali Amankwa hit the game-winner at the buzzer. Illinois State recruit Madison Austin also had a buzzer-beater against Alleman earlier this season.

“It’s really exciting, but we know that it’s not going to be easy,” Austin said of being in first place. “Our conference is very hard, so we’ve just got to play as hard as we can every game.”

Sterling has taken a leap forward this season after going 14-16 last season and 6-8 in conference.

Austin is Sterling’s leading scorer (14.9 points per game) and rebounder (8.3 per game). Jossy James leads the team with 2.9 assists per game and 3.5 steals per game. She is second in scoring at 13.5 ppg.