It came eight minutes and 59 seconds into the third quarter Saturday night as the hometown Gatewood Gators were locked in a tight, back-and-forth battle with the visiting Trinity Christian Crusaders out of Dublin.
Sophomore Matt Allen caught a pass deep in Gators territory and took off running, dribbling the ball down the right side of hardwood.
A Trinity defender arrived from Allen’s left, forcing him to suddenly stop, dart to the middle of the key, then take a couple of steps forward before leaping upward, his right arm extended straight up with the ball in hand for a reverse layup.
Allen never took his eyes off the target as the ball rolled off the tips of his fingers, made gentle contact with the backboard, and then fell through the twine for the young player’s 1,000th career point.
“I’ve been working for this all year and just really putting in the work and the time and it’s paid off,” Allen said shortly after helping his team to a 75-70 win.
As soon as the milestone point dropped, Allen went straight to Gators head coach Don Keiser on the sidelines where the two celebrated.
“My favorite part of the night, and I’m tearing up just thinking about it, but when I gave Matt the game ball and I hugged him, he said, ‘I love you, Coach,’ and it just touched me,” Keiser said at the end of the night after a huge win for his team. “I mean, I’ve been with him from seventh grade to now. And he said, ‘I love you, Coach.’ It really touched me.”
The game briefly came to a halt as Allen’s parents descended from the stands for a couple of courtside photos and to secure the historic game ball for safekeeping. The love, admiration, and happiness for the young player from his mother and father were obvious and genuine.
Keiser said he had to remind Allen at the half to take a breath and stop trying to force the play with a shot at any opportunity. Just follow the process and the points will come, he reminded his young star.
“I had to stay composed. I mean, I was looking to get it and I was forcing stuff, doing stuff I shouldn’t have done,” Allen admitted later. “It all came around, but I couldn’t have done it without my team for sure,” he added. “They’ve definitely done a lot of work for me. I just really thanked them later.”
Perhaps no teammate did more to spur Allen along than the coach’s son, Kaden Keiser. When the game finally ended after double overtime, 75-70 in the Gators’ favor, Keiser was the first player he celebrated with. The two leading scorers quite literally leaped high in the air for a celebratory embrace.
“He’s a team player. I try to be there for him; he’s there for me. We’re always in the gym working out together. It just means a lot that me and Matt, we’ve got that special bond,” Kaden Keiser said. “But we all try to be there for each other on this team. We all want him to succeed; we want everybody here to succeed in the game.”
Keiser, the coach, pointed out there’s still a lot of basketball to be played this year and with Allen only in 10th grade, plenty of time remains for him to eclipse the program record, set by Scott Haley with 1,664 points.
“I think he could do it,” Keiser said. “There’s still lots of time left.”