The 2014-15 Nansemond-Suffolk Academy girls’ basketball team has a tough act to follow after last season’s team went 21-3 and advanced as far as the state semifinals, but it had a special start on Friday.

Junior point guard Harper Birdsong hit the 1,000-point milestone in her NSA varsity career and junior center Caroline Hogg produced a career-high offensive performance with the team as the Lady Saints defeated visiting Hampton Roads Academy 64-16.

“I thought it was a good game to start off with,” Nansemond-Suffolk coach Kim Aston said. “HRA’s a little bit down this year, but I thought that Carol and Harper had a great game. I’ve talked to them about (how) they really have to lead us offensively this year, and they both did a great job in that respect.”

Birdsong scored 21 points on 10-for-11 shooting from the floor with 10 assists and was pulled after three quarters of play in the blowout.

“Harper was pretty unstoppable tonight,” Aston said. “She could have probably scored 40 points if she wanted to.”

Birdsong said she reached 1,000 points on her first shot of the second half, but she had not known the milestone was on the horizon in this game.

“That’s why I was really shocked when it happened,” she said. “I thought Kim was taking me out, so it was confusion.”

Aston noted that Jessica Pieroni and she herself also reached 1,000 points in their junior years at NSA, but Birdsong may have gotten there the fastest.

“I think it’s probably the earliest in the season,” Aston said.

Commenting on what it meant to hit 1,000 to start her junior year, Birdsong said, “It’s nice, but I just go for team goals more than individual goals, so I just want to win our conference championship and then get far in states this year.”

The Lady Saints went undefeated last season against opponents in the Tidewater Conference of Independent Schools, winning the regular season and the tournament.

This season’s team will lack several standouts that helped make the 2013-14 success happen, like Pieroni, Kaylor Nash and Macy Mears, who have graduated. Senior Caylin Harris will also not be back as she focuses on honing her volleyball skills for college.

Stepping up her game already, however, is Caroline Hogg, NSA’s 6-foot-4-inch center who scored 25 points Friday evening on 12-for-16 shooting.

“And she didn’t play the whole fourth quarter either,” Aston said.

Hogg estimated her previous career best was 10 points, and at some point during Friday’s game, “I was pretty sure I had passed that,” she said.

The new high mark was an encouraging sign of personal progress to her.

“It means my hard work’s paying off,” she said. “Can’t wait to see what else we do this season.”

Aston was also pleased with the performances of her new players.

“We’re really young in the guard spots,” the coach said. “We have Logan (Harrell), Lindsay (Knierbein) and Sasha Roberts, and they’re all new players, and I thought they did a nice job when they went in.”

Harrell and Knierbein are sophomores and Roberts is a freshman.

The Lady Saints have four seniors on the roster this year, three of which are returners: guards Sarah Higinbotham and Bridget Murphy and forward Chloe Tillman. The fourth senior is 6-foot-2-inch volleyball standout Lizzy Fowler, who gives her basketball team depth at center.

“This was Lizzy Fowler’s first game playing basketball in five years, and so she scored five points, so that was a good start,” Aston said.

On Saturday afternoon, Nansemond-Suffolk (1-0) hosted Virginia Episcopal School, which won the state championship on the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division III level last year.