Spartans' Carlson Dominant in Scoring 1,000th Point
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – Late in the first quarter of a game he already turned into a blowout, Monument Mountain senior Khalil Carlson made history.
Carlson took a pass in the paint from Sean Scarbro, made a spin move around an Easthampton defender and put his name on the gymnasium wall.
His 14th point of the game not only gave the Spartans a 29-10 lead, it was the 1,000th point of Carlson’s stellar career and put Monument Mountain well on its way to a 97-52 win.
Carlson, who said he did know that he was just two points away from the milestone, talked about the historic moment.
“I was just like, ‘I’m open. I may as well take the shot,’ “ he said. “It rolled around the rim, and at first I was like, ‘Is it really going in?’
“But it was early in the game, so I wasn’t too worried about it.”
He had plenty of time to score 13 more points before taking a seat for good early in the third quarter, putting Carlson well on his way to an assault on the school’s boys basketball scoring record, 1,099, set in 1992 by Jason Ross, the only other Spartan boy to reach 1,000 points in his high school career.
A large crowd packed the home side of the gym after walking through a hallway lined with posters announcing that the star swing man was within striking distance of the 1,000-point plateau.
They were delighted when he threw down a dunk for point No. 996 and a 19-6 lead midway through the quarter.
A few minutes later, they exploded when he sank his seventh field goal of the night.
It was the kind of offensive fireworks that Monument Mountain fans have come to expect from Carlson, who last year led the Spartans to the state quarter-finals, where they fell by just two points to eventual Division 4 state runner-up Springfield International Charter.
“He means the world to our program,” Spartan coach Randy Koldys said. “He’s a cornerstone of our program, along with some other guys, who just have played basketball for the last four years, 365 days a year, 24/7. And they’ve gotten better from it. They’ve gotten closer because of it. We have eight guys who are really, really tight now. That’s our rotation.
“He emulates what the school is all about. And what I mean by that is he’s a good basketball player, but he’s an even better kid.”
After a brief midcourt ceremony posing for pictures with his teammates and family, Carlson added a free throw as the first quarter wound down and added 12 more points for good measure in the second to get the lead to 61-25 at half-time and finish the night with 27.
Junior Manny Brown had an impressive night of his own, scoring 20 points, all in the first half and 12 on 3-pointers.
Dominic Calautti contributed 10 points on a night when all the Spartans played and 11 put a mark in the scoring column.
“We had three freshmen in there, practically the whole second half,” Koldys said. “That’s good for them. They need the exposure. I can’t say enough good things about how it turned out tonight.”
Not to be lost is how well things worked for the Spartans’ press, which produced seven turnovers in the first quarter alone and was a big factor in building a 32-10 lead after eight minutes.
“Our press the other night was not good against Belchertown, but tonight it was so much better,” Koldys said. “We got in passing lanes a lot better. We did a lot of good things. I’m really happy with the defensive effort tonight. I’m happy with the offensive effort.
“Both ends of the floor, we played really, really well.”
For Carlson, this is the second season of basketball this academic year. But he did not produce nearly as many points in the fall in his role as a partner on Monument Mountain’s first ever Unified Basketball team.
“It was great to work with those kids,” he said. “I think it’s made me into a better leader. It’s made me more patient. It’s made me more understanding of everything.
“It was amazing. It was a great situation, and I hope I get to do something like that again.”