When Sheiana Tutler hit a clutch, late free throw, her jubilant teammates swarmed her. St. John Neumann led by three, but 6.2 seconds still remained Wednesday at Blue Mountain High School.

Victory was far from secure, but Tutler’s teammates could not hide their excitement at seeing the senior leader score her 1,000th career point.

And that says a lot about the player Tutler is and the impact she has made.

“It was really great. We all knew she needed just one shot,” Ella Ballard said after grabbing seven rebounds. “It added to everything. We were so happy for her.”

Tutler not only scored her 1,000th point in Neumann’s gutsy 40-37 Class A second round state tournament win. She also showed exactly how she has been able to reach that milestone and how hard she has worked by delivering an outstanding performance at the perfect time.

Battling against 6-foot-3, LaSalle-bound Amber Bullard, Tutler collected a double-double, going for 13 points, grabbing 10 rebounds as Neumann (18-9) reached the state quarterfinals for the first time.

“I’m so excited,” Neumann guard Lily Reid said after scoring 12 points. “To top it off, Sheiana getting her 1,000 points tonight makes it even better.”

Really, a Hollywood writer could not have produced a better script for how Tutler reached that milestone and became the program’s first 1,000-point scorer since current assistant coach Shayna McNamee five years ago. It was not just Tutler scoring those points, but when she scored them.

Tutler scored six fourth-quarter points and hit the shot of her scholastic life with 57.1 seconds remaining, drilling a go-ahead 3-pointer which put Neumann up, 39-37. That also put Tutler at 999 career points and her shot at the milestone came in those closing seconds.

Tutler missed the first free throw but collected herself and calmly connected on the second while becoming just the fifth Neumann player of the 2000s to reach 1,000 points. That free throw was bigger for another huge reason as it forced TCA to have to put up a 3-pointer to force overtime and when that shot missed, Neumann was headed to the Elite 8.

“The first shot I was like, ‘OK, I have to calm down and slow down the game,'” Tutler said. “The second one I just took a breath, and I couldn’t hear anything, and I just shot it.”

“She said to me at the last game, ‘I’m running out of time,'” Neumann coach Helena Floyd said. “She got that this game and that was great to see.”

Tutler and Reid started as freshmen three years ago when Neumann finished 1-21. That Neumann has now become one of the state’s top eight Class A teams shows far those players and this program have come. First, Tutler helped Neumann fight up from the bottom and then she fought back from personal adversity after tearing her ACL during last year’s district semifinals.

Despite the setback occurring in late February last year and having essentially no offseason as she rehabbed, Tutler has picked up where she left off before the injury. She never missed a game and has averaged a double-double for a second straight season while helping Neumann win 16 of its last 21 games.

Tutler is a 6-footer, but she also handles the ball well, has developed a quality outside shot and can hurt teams in a variety of ways. She needed every tool in the box Wednesday, going against Bullard who overpowered High Point in the first round, scoring 37 points and grabbing 24 rebounds.

Bullard played an excellent game and produced 19 points, with 20 rebounds. Still, Tutler was every bit as effective, and her versatility provided an X-factor which TCA did not have. While Bullard was unable to do damage when she did not have the ball close to the basket, Tutler scored in seemingly every way and her fierce work on the boards helped negate TCA’s biggest strength.

“She was more all-around. It’s nice to be big, but I knew she (Bullard) has only been playing for three years and I knew she only stays under the basket. Sheiana is more versatile,” Floyd said. “She can shoot from the inside; she can shoot from the outside. She can do it all. I’ll take that over the height any day and she really pulled it off.”

Tutler embraced the challenge of going against a Division I recruit. In addition to producing a double-double, Tutler blocked four shots. She made sure Bullard never earned anything easy and she never backed down.

Earning the 1,000 points, obviously, was memorable. But how Tutler reached that milestone stood out more. Because, ultimately, those points proved a point and helped Neumann produce a historic win.

And that was what mattered most on this night.

“Once I heard she was 6-3 and going D1, I knew I at least had to step it up and show that I can guard a D1 player,” Tutler said. “Just because they’re going D1 doesn’t mean they’re better than everybody else.”