NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Everyone in Drury’s gymnasium on Wednesday knew that Louis Guillotte needed 28 points against Lenox to reach 1,000 in his stellar career.
And in case anyone forgot, a sign in the Blue Devils’ student section counted down the points he needed in the second half.
In the fourth quarter, Guillotte was sitting on 23 points – five from the milestone, when he dished off to Sam Moorman for a bucket to put Drury up, 54-43.
A few minutes later, after Guillotte scored in transition for his 25th – and 997th points – he again deferred, distributed and set up Moorman for a basket to make it a 60-45 lead.
With less than three minutes left, Guillotte pulled up for a jumper from the baseline on the left wing to put his team ahead by 17.
And with 55 seconds left to play, the senior drew a foul on a shot from the baseline, went to the line, and made the second of two free throws to score No. 1,000 for his career and, perhaps more importantly to him, secure a 68-51 win.
“It wasn’t just to help me get to 1,000,” Guillotte said afterward. “I get a lot of touches in the game. But I hit it. I’m happy. And it’s time to move on to the next game.”
Drury goes to that game on Thursday at Hopkins Academy with a 5-1 record thanks to a second half comeback that was about more than just the 17 second-half points Guillotte needed to reach his personal milestone.
The Blue Devils got 14 second-half points from Amont David, who finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Moorman scored six of his 10 points after half-time.
And a Drury defense that was torched for 33 points in the first half allowed just 18 in the second.
“Coming into the year, we knew he was going to get his 1,000,” Drury coach Jack Racette said of Guillotte. “He’s drawing a lot of attention. They went box-and-one on him a little tonight. We may see more of that and all these gimmick defenses to stop him.
“But that’s a true professional right there. He scored his 1,000th point … and he only needs three and he makes two great passes to a sophomore. That’s a tribute to what it takes. He’s a two-time Western Mass champ. He knows what it takes to get there.”
Guillotte, who was held to just six points in the first 14 minutes of the game, heated up at the end of the second quarter, scoring the last five points for Drury in 1 minute, 3 seconds to send the Blue Devils into the locker room down, 33-25.
Michael Butler and Emmitt Shove were the offensive story at half-time. The Lenox duo combined for 23 points in the first two quarters. Shove went on to finish with 19 in the game, and Butler scored 15 to lead the Millionaires (2-3).
“It doesn’t seem like we can put together a full 32 minutes,” Lenox coach Scott Sibley said. “Tonight, I thought they played really well for the first 16. We limited [Drury’s] second chance opportunities. I thought we did a good job of closing out, rebounding. And we took much better shots than we did in the second half.
“I thought we got away from the team concept in the second half and tried to become two individualized.”
That one-on-one play helped lead to five Lenox turnovers in the third quarter after the Millionaires gave up the ball just three times in the first half.
Several of those turnovers turned into points at the other end, including a transition bucket by Guillotte to make it 41-38 and cap a 16-5 Drury spurt to open the third quarter.
Butler hit at the other end to draw Lenox within one, but Drury scored the next nine, ending with a finish in the post by David early in the third to give the Blue Devils their first double-digit lead at 50-40.
Drury’s dominance in the paint after half-time was a big reason it was able to outscore Lenox, 43-18, in the last two quarters. Partly it was a change in Drury’s approach, and partly it was foul trouble for the Millionaires’ 6-foot-6 big man, Shaler Larmon, Sibley said.
“We knew Louis was 28 away from his 1,000, and in the first half we gave him 11,” Sibley said. “We tried to contain him to that in the second half, but he started to take over, and we didn’t have the size to compete with him down low tonight. Once Shaler got into some foul trouble, we’re kind of vertically challenged.”
The Blue Devils did what they could to press their advantage.
“We can shoot it when we get [opponents] stretched out enough,” Racette said. “But when we’re just getting the first look and we’re getting 3-point shots blocked, I’m like, ‘Why would we be shooting?’ You’ve got to be wide open with the size we’ve got. And Amont David has had back-to-back huge nights. Last night he had 26 [points] and 12 [rebounds].”
Guillotte, who scored 500 points as a junior last winter, has at least 14 games left to play this winter in a season where he is averaging just more than 20 points per night.
And considering his sophomore season was all but lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 1,000 six games into his senior year looks like an even bigger accomplishment.
“It’s pretty impressive,” Racette said. “We talked about it [in the locker room], a lot of our things, teamwise, too, having that whole year off. We played eight games that year. So when we talk about getting to 1,000 …
“But he’s been with us since eighth-grade, too. Some teams over the mountain say, ‘There’s no way that guy is still on your team.’ … He’s won a lot of games. He’s played a lot of games. He’s played a lot of big games. But that was a great performance tonight. He got it going in the second half. And once he gets it going, he’s a tough stop.”
