A late start was followed by an early end.

What happened in between made Terri Haynes a name to remember.

Haynes scored 2,087 points during her girls basketball career at Sandy Creek. At the start of the current high school season, that total — a Frontier League record for girls — ranked second on the Section 3 all-time list, behind the 2,124 of Westhill's Carlee Cassidy, who ended her career in 2006.

Haynes, who graduated from Sandy Creek in 1984, told the Times during her senior season that she didn't start playing basketball seriously until she was 12 or 13 years old. The impetus, apparently, came from her brother, Rick, who was forced away from the game at age 14 after having a kidney removed.

"Rick started to get me interested in basketball," Terri Haynes told the Times. "I guess I always thought I was going to play for him."

She did it well.

A five-time league all-star known for her dedication to practice, Haynes attended James Madison University on a basketball scholarship before moving on to play for Canisius after that school developed a Division I program.

As a senior co-captain for Canisius, Haynes started all 26 of her team's games, averaging 10.5 points. She added 77 assists and 80 rebounds that season.

Haynes graduated from Canisius in 1989, finishing with 556 career points for the Golden Griffins.

On March 21, 1990, Haynes lost control of her car while driving on Oswego County Route 15. The vehicle struck and embankment and a tree. She died a day later in Watertown's House of the Good Samaritan hospital. She was 23.

The Canisius women's basketball team later honored its former player, renaming its annual hustle award the Terri Haynes Award.