On Tuesday not one, but two high school hoopsters poured in triple digits for the first time since 1979. Junior Cedric Helmsley knocked down 101 for Heritage Christian Academy in a 178-28 victory over Banff Christian School while DaJuan Wagner scored 100 for Camden High in a 157-67 victory over Gloucester Township Technical School at Camden, N.J.
According to the National High School Sports Record Book, the young men are the 13th and 14th players to drop a C-note. Clearly, they've got game.
You don't hit triple digits by having a good mid-range jump shot. Then again, neither probably should have reached triple digits at all.
Sure it is fantastic resume fodder and makes for a nice trivia question, but look at who these guys were playing? As their name implies, Banff Christian School truly appears to be quite forgiving on the defensive end. And Gloucester Township Technical School doesn't exactly sound like a feeder school to ACC basketball.
Their mothers must be so proud.
But do I blame Helmsley and Wagner? Not at all. If I have 75 points in the 3rd quarter, I am going to launch it from everywhere to hit the Chamberlain line.
Allow me to read off the laundry list of names who have scored 100 points in a high school contest. Danny Heater's 135 points in 1960 tops the list followed by Johnny Morris, Dick Bogenrife and Pete Cimino. Dick Bogenrife?
Do you recognize these names? Neither do I. Let me give you a few other names you have not heard of that played into this circus.
Heritage coach Jerome Tang and Camden High coach Glen Jackson deserve the blame for embarrassing Banff and Gloucester Township Tech and making a mockery of good sportsmanship and the effort that the 24 kids put forth in an attempt to stop the duo's record-breaking performances.
Sure Helmsley and Wagner deserve their props for filling it up.
Helmsley only averages 20 points a game and was headed to the disabled list after this contest for 10 days for a surgical procedure.
As a result, according to Tang, the team wanted to "sacrifice" to allow their teammate to do something important and successful -- like embarrass a team that wanted to win a basketball game by 100 points.
With two-and-a-half minutes remaining, a very tired Helmsley still needed 17 points but Tang elected to keep him in there and the talented teenager did not miss another shot.
Therefore all the Heritage players swallowed their pride for an evening and forced Banff Christian to do so tenfold.
Meanwhile, Wagner averages 47 a game and has been lauded as a Jason Kidd protege, so he is no stranger to the scorebook.
Let him knock home 60 or 70 and then have him take a seat. Or let Wagner set the school record that he can carry with him to John Calipari's Memphis squad next season.
I know what some of you are going to say. The kid only played 28 minutes and the entire crowd was behind him chanting" Go For Wilt." Why shouldn't Jackson let him score at will?
Scoring 100 points made the sports section of every nationwide newspaper and plenty of web sites too. All coming out with 75 points gets you is respect and honor; something Camden High felt they did not need -- especially from Gloucester Township Technical.
Instead, Jackson employed a full-court press for not one, not two, but all four quarters.
It makes sense because they only had a 50-point lead heading into the final stanza -- so the game was still clearly in doubt.
And with 72 points heading into that final stanza, Wagner took nearly every shot during a four-minute span in which he reeled off the requisite 28 points to reach the century mark. He finished 42-of-61 from the field for the night.
Then DaJuan Wagner sat down.
For the life of me, I cannot understand why.
I guess no one knew that Danny Heater's 41-year-old mark was just 35 points away.
