Springfield senior Jacey Mullen shoots and scores during a road win at Western Reserve earlier in the month. Recently finding herself as the all-time scorer in school history, Mullen sits at 1,505 points.

NEW MIDDLETOWN — There’s a lot that comes with putting on the Springfield uniform and representing New Middletown. Over the past several years, the Tigers have basked in success through multiple sports.

A multi-sport athlete herself, senior Jacey Mullen now finds herself atop Springfield’s all-time scoring chart, counting both the boys and girls teams. Following Monday night’s contest against Western Reserve, Mullen has 1,505 career points, dethroning Graham Mincher, who concluded his career in 2016 with 1,486.

She shattered the record on Jan. 28, scoring 22 points in a win over Rootstown.

The irony of the situation is that she wasn’t aware she earned the record until after the game.

“I didn’t find out until after when I was on the bus, but just being there with everyone and my team, it was just super exciting, and it just felt like a really big accomplishment,” said Mullen. “It was a close game and especially going into the fourth quarter. We were really just focused on winning and coming out strong, and coming out with a win, so I think it was better that it was something we didn’t have to worry about.”

Sitting with an overall record of 17-2, the Tigers clinched the outright Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference title Monday evening following a 34-19 home victory over Western Reserve. She was honored prior to the game.

Her success around the hoop has derived from her physical style of play.

“She’s relentless, that’s how she’s been able to accomplish this,” Springfield coach John Matisi said. “If you watch her on film, if you watch her in person, she never stops moving, she’s always crashing the glass, she’s always after the loose balls and steals. You can’t score 1,400 points in a year. This takes four years of excellence to be able to accomplish, it’s just a testament of what she’s been able to do for all four years.”

While also playing volleyball, Mullen started her basketball career during the first grade, a benefit being that Springfield’s junior high program starts in the fourth. Her older sister Maddie played during the same time, giving Mullen older kids to look up to for inspiration.

“I remember my dad would take me to their practices sometimes, and I would just watch. They were nice enough to let me do some of the drills sometimes,” said Mullen. “I feel like a lot of (Maddie’s) friends did continue to play, so just getting in there in seventh and eighth grade, we’d have open gyms. So you’d know some of the kids and it just gave you a little bit more confidence than going in there as a younger kid, not knowing anyone and being nervous.”

As one of the top players in the area, Mullen draws double teams multiple times throughout the year. But, she loves the added attention as it free’s up post players such as Jameka Brungard or Madison Lesnak.

Spending time with Team Cure during the offseason, the AAU circuit allowed the Tigers shooting guard to hone her skills with other standouts from the Mahoning Valley.

Tack on volleyball and she finds herself having to keep focus. Matisi sees that constant play as a benefit, however, building her overall toolbox of moves.

“We like to post her up, do some different things with her, but the reason she can score 20-25 a game is because she does all the other stuff,” Matisi said. “It’s not just off the sets, it’s not just off called plays, she’s getting baskets in a lot of different ways.

“There’s nothing at this point you can throw at her that she hasn’t seen. If it’s a game where she needs to be more of a distributor, she can do that. If it’s a game where she can affect the game by getting offensive rebounds, she can play solid defense and get her teammates open shots.”

Whenever there’s a smaller community involved and such a historic bar to live up to, suiting up with the orange and black is a feeling that Mullen doesn’t take for granted.

“I think it’s special. I think coming from a very small school, the community does come together, and really supports all of the sports teams, good or bad.” Mullen said. “I think being able to come out, say you’re from Springfield, play with the kids that you’ve known your whole life, and still have a lot of success compared to some other schools that maybe are open enrollment.”

It may be hard to believe, but the tournament is on the horizon. There’s still a slew of regular season contests to go, but the Tigers open up their postseason play as the first seed in Division IV, Northeast 1 bracket. They’ll play the winner of Willoughby Andrews Osborne and Wellsville at home on the 18th.

“We’re pretty excited closing out these last few regular season league games which are going to be good ones,” said Mullen. “We’re definitely excited to start playing some really good competitive teams and trying to repeat and do better than we did last year.”

sports@vindy.com