The most exclusive club in Minnesota high school basketball is on track to, soon, double in size. One of the two current members couldn’t be more excited to have some company.

Former Braham guard Rebekah Dahlman was, and still remains, the only Minnesota girls player to score 5,000 career points. She hit the milestone her senior year at the 2013 state tournament. Her final total of 5,060 career points, scored across six seasons, has remained a girls basketball state record for over a decade.

Former Lakeview Christian Academy boys basketball player Anders Broman owns the state’s all-time career record at 5,119 points, accumulated from 2018-2013.

In Dahlman’s eyes, someone breaking her record was a matter of when, not if.

“Women’s basketball nowadays is on the rise,” said Dahlman, who recently moved to the Twin Cities after living and working in the Atlanta area. “I just love to see it.”

What Dahlman is seeing now is Crosby-Ironton’s Tori Oehrlein and Providence Academy’s Maddyn Greenway closing in on her career mark. The senior point guards are both on pace to reach the 5,060-point milestone between late January (in Oehrlein’s case) and early February (in Greenway’s).

“Records are meant to get broken,” Dahlman said. “And I’ve been wanting this to happen. … I’m so happy for these two girls.”

Parallels in their pursuits

When Dahlman cracked 3,888 points — what was then the scoring record held by Minneapolis South’s Tayler Hill — she was only a junior. That gave her over a season to become the state’s first player in the 4,000-point club, then 5,000.

“I don’t even think even I realized [the significance] of that number when I was in high school,” Dahlman said.

But scoring prowess isn’t where Dahlman’s similarities to Greenway and Oehrlein end.

Dahlman, part of one of the state’s most storied basketball families, won a 2011 Class 2A state title playing alongside her sister, Hannah, like Greenway has with freshman sister Beckett. Like Oehrlein, Dahlman comes from a smaller town, with Braham and Crosby both home to around 2,000 residents as of the 2020 census.

As unique as the possibility of dual record breakers is, Dahlman also competed at the same time as another outstanding peer in Class 2A basketball.

That was Carlie Wagner of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva (NRHEG), a two-time 2A champ who graduated the year after Dahlman and went on to become a Gophers great. By the time she wrapped up her high school career, Wagner was second on the state’s all-time scoring leaderboard, and is now fifth.

In fact, the game in which Dahlman broke Hill’s record was a loss to NRHEG in the 2012 state quarterfinals. Talking to media after the game, Dahlman gave credit to her teammates and coaches for her own record, and praised Wagner as one of the best players she had ever faced.

“I’m going to be so honest, I never really kept track [of the points],” Dahlman said recently. “I was just like, so into winning, winning, winning. How do we become the best?”

Greenway has won a state-record four Class 2A titles with Providence Academy. Oehrlein has helped Crosby-Ironton reach three state tournaments, including going undefeated entering its first Class 2A state title game appearance last season.

“I’m sure that [record] is in the back of their mind,” Dahlman said, “but that’s not their main focus. … They just want to win a state tournament.”

‘That’s what sticks with you’

Dahlman offered advice for any future record breaker: “Soak it in, because it goes by fast.”

Injuries kept Dahlman sidelined for large chunks of her college basketball career, including a blood clot that required multiple surgeries during her freshman year at Vanderbilt. After a fresh start with DePaul as a senior transfer, Dahlman fractured her hand in their season opener and was out for the season.

Dahlman ended her college career on a high note, earning DePaul’s Sixth Player of the Year honors by averaging 15.8 points across 34 appearances as the team reached the first round of the NCAA tournament.

That time spent on the bench offered her a different perspective.

“You want to be a good teammate, first and foremost,” Dahlman said. “My goal is always to be the best teammate, even though I didn’t always see the floor.”

In high school gyms across Minnesota, it’s not uncommon to catch young fans snapping photos with standout high school players like Greenway, a Kentucky recruit, and Oehrlein, a Gophers recruit.

That buzz — photos, autographs — is what Dahlman said she remembers “vividly” after breaking the state record.

“Who are you outside of the court, who are you after games ... just talking to the kids, getting them motivated to be great someday,” Dahlman said. “I think, nowadays, players are doing a phenomenal job.”

The countdown to breaking the record might, admittedly, be somewhat of a distant memory to Dahlman. But other, and arguably more important things, are most clear. Teammates. Coaches.

“As you get older, you don’t really remember the scores of the games,” she said. “You’ll remember championships, of course, but I think the biggest thing is who you build those memories and friendships with. … That’s what sticks with you.”