Going into the first match of the girls basketball state tournament, Dartmouth senior Kat Cheesebro had one thought on her mind: beat North Attleboro High School and move on to the Sweet Sixteen.

And after a tight game on Thursday, Feb. 27 where the Dartmouth girls won by 11 points, the team is not only advancing to the next round but Cheesebro also scored the 2,000th point of her high school career — an accomplishment that Coach Brian Jalbert said happens “once every five years” in the state.

“One-thousand points is such an incredible achievement. Two-thousand is out of this world,” he added.

Despite being 35 points away from breaking 2,000 points when the game against North Attleboro began, Cheesebro said she was focused on “trying to get the win,” adding that the team’s win is “obviously more important.”

“I knew if I played well this game I was going to eventually get it this game or next game,” she said.

In her junior year Cheesebro hit 1,000 points, entering her senior season with “only about 300 more to go.”

With the season beginning in December, Cheesebro said reaching 2,000 points “at first seemed like it was going to be hard to achieve,” adding that she would have had to “average a certain amount of points per game.”

“Now it feels great to get that,” she said.

Cheesebro credits her achievement to her support system, including Jalbert, her friends, family and teammates.

“They all have so much confidence in me, which makes it so much easier to perform,” she said.

With the win against North Attleboro, the girls basketball team is advancing to the Sweet Sixteen round for the second year in a row.

“We’re very lucky to have Kat. We’re very lucky to have the players we have with the skills we have, which helped us win this game,” Jalbert said.

Despite the win, both Cheesebro and Jalbert thought the team could have played better.

Cheesebro said that before the next match, she would like to see the team practice their rebounds, which she said was “really what kept [North Attleboro] in the game.”

“We really need to focus on rebounding — that’s been our one struggle this season,” she added.

Jalbert said the team needs to be “more crisp” and “more confident,” adding he could tell the athletes were “clearly nervous” during the game.

“We just didn’t have our A game tonight, but luckily our C game was going,” he added.

The team will return to the court either Monday, March 1 or Tuesday, March 2, depending on how other teams in the tournament perform.