Dillard Dunks His Way To 1,000-Point Club
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 3, 2012
By Brian Pitts
Davie Enterprise Record
• Shannon Dillard of the Davie boys basketball team joined the 1,000-point club last week. To put that feat into perspective, consider he’s just the seventh male in the school’s 56-year history to reach four figures.
• Nate Jones exploded for 30-plus points three times last year. He’s already matched that as a senior, doing it three times in a four-game span. He expects to make every shot, and so does everyone watching.
• The twins – sophomores Caleb and Cody Martin – are attracting one ACC coach after another to the Davie gym. One night it was Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik. The next home game there was N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried. And last week there was Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg.
Simply put, you can’t go anywhere these days without a fan, teacher or parent smiling about the 8-1 Davie boys, who outscored last week’s three foes 248-112.
The first victim was Braemar College, a private school from Australia that visited Davie amid a 12-game tour around the Carolinas. The charged atmosphere had to make for an intimidating setting for Braemar, which absorbed an 85-39 waxing.
Coach Mike Absher took it easy on the Australians, emptying his bench by the second quarter, and one Australian after another said Davie displayed the best hospitality of any school they’ve visited in the States.
It was business as usual for Dillard (18 points, 12 rebounds), Jones (16 points, actually a season low), Cody Martin (15 points, 13 rebounds, six assists) and Caleb Martin (14 points, seven rebounds).
A special moment came early in the game. Dillard dunked off a feed from Peyton Sell, and at the next dead ball, Absher asked an official to halt the game so PA man Mike Dunn could recognize Dillard’s accomplishment. The dunk represented the 999th and 1000th points of Dillard’s four-year varsity career …
Dillard had 159 points as a freshman, 307 as a sophomore, 439 as a junior and has 129 as a senior. He entered the week at 1,034.
“Any time a young man can accomplish that goal, it speaks highly for him,” Absher said. “It speaks highly for his persistence over four years because he’s battled through some injuries and he’s still been able to put up numbers like that. I’m glad it happened at home. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
“I don’t even feel like I’ve been here that long,” Dillard said. “But I’m proud that I’ve actually done this. Me and my mom (Gina) planned this. She said I have to score 10 points a game to get this, so I tried. I feel real lucky to be up there with those people who have done it …