DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Morgan Hembarsky aspires to be a news anchor.

Shows like “Good Morning America” on ABC and others on CNN have piqued her interest. The Sage Hill School senior just got news from Lehigh University that she’ll be part of its freshman class this fall.

Hembarsky is years away from landing a coveted network news anchor job. If she succeeds, at least she’ll have a teleprompter to read off the news.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts of a story, Hembarsky is still green.

Teenagers tend to forget things. Hembarsky is no exception to this and you might be surprised why.

She lived through an unforgettable night last month. She had no idea what happened the night of Jan. 9.

In a girls’ basketball game, Coach Lou Silverman said Hembarsky made a Sage Hill record seven three-pointers. Hembarsky never gave it any thought.

Seven three-pointers is big news. A school record is big news.

What stood out to Hembarsky more than her record-setting night was her team losing at rival St. Margaret’s by 14 points.

“It was our wake-up call,” Hembarsky said. “We weren’t playing to our full potential. Coach made us aware that it was our wake-up call.”

A couple of days later, Hembarsky ran into a former teammate, the player who held the Lightning single-game record for threes.

Hembarsky remembers Laura Schaefer well. Schaefer consistently buried shots from three-point range when Hembarsky was a freshman during the 2005-06 season.

That season, Hembarsky saw Schaefer hit a school-best 64 threes, lighting up the competition as a senior.

This time, Schaefer tried her best to cheer Hembarsky up after the Lightning dropped their first Academy League game of the season.

“She said, ‘You beat my record!’ ” said Hembarsky, who at the time was already aware of breaking the school mark.

What was broken was the team.

The losing continued and Sage Hill found itself at 2-3 in league play, far from being a league contender.

“We started off the [league part of the] season kind of rough,” Hembarsky said.

Down the stretch, the Lightning smoothed things out.

Hembarsky played an integral part to Sage Hill closing out league play with five straight victories to claim a share of the league crown.

In the final three games that counted, must-win situations, Hembarsky hit two big three-pointers in each contest.

The Lightning first got revenge at home on St. Margaret’s, winning 45-32.

Four days later, Hembarsky recorded 18 points in a 46-37 victory against visiting Oxford Academy. In the league-title clinching 51-41 win at Whitney, she finished with 13 points.

Sage Hill finished 7-3 in league and ended up splitting the league championship with St. Margaret’s and Whitney, giving Hembarsky her third league title in four years.

From the time Silverman first coached Hembarsky as a sophomore, he saw what she was capable of on the court. She went into Sage Hill’s CIF Southern Section Division V-AA first-round playoff game Thursday averaging 10 points per game.

“She’s improved every year,” said Silverman, who’s in his third season at Sage Hill. “Her hard work and dedication paid off. If you can put together a career in which you’ve improved every year and finish it off with a fantastic senior year, you can’t ask for anything more.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.