By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — With a defensive play late in the second quarter of Friday’s non-league matchup, Ryan Garwood earned a fist pump from his head coach and dad, JJ Garwood.
Less than eight minutes of game time later, the Northstar Christian senior brought his teammates on the bench to their feet with a play on the offensive end of the floor.
The latter marked a milestone.
Garwood’s 3-pointer in transition, his fifth of the day, lifted the 6-foot guard’s career point total to 2,001.
“It felt really good to score 2,000 points, but it was a great team win as well,” he said.
Teammate Gavin Jones led the Knights in transition and found Garwood along the left side of the floor. Like so many times in the past, Garwood didn’t hesitate before finding the twine.
It was fitting that the shot came from the long range. Earlier this season, Garwood became Section V’s all-time 3-point scorer. His six triples on the day increased his career total to 365 – second all time in New York State trailing only current Syracuse University guard Joe Girard.
“I had a feeling it would come off a three,” he said. “Free throw line wouldn’t have been bad, but I didn’t really want an open layup or anything like that. A three was definitely ideal and I’m glad that it happened.”
A 3 in transition, Ryan Garwood’s 5th of the game. With that, the Northstar Christian senior guard scores the 2,000th point of his career. pic.twitter.com/NGiz0t6sqq
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) February 18, 2022
Garwood paced an overall team effort that saw the Knights match a school record with 20 treys Friday evening.
Needing 22 points to reach the plateau, Garwood started quickly. He used an upfake to get a defender to commit before going off the dribble to score in the lane on Northstar’s first possession. Next trip down the floor, he buried a corner three.
He used a hesitation dribble to get loose along the left side for his next bucket before drilling a “heat-check” three for 10 points in the first eight minutes of play.
“Before the game, coach told us that I’m close to a milestone, but he said we’re not going to push anything. It’s going to just come naturally, just play the game. It will come.”
Teammate Larry O’Neal set him up with an inside-out pass for another 3-ball, and he found the measure one more time from long range for 16 points in the first half.
“It was basically, doing it within the flow of the game. There was not much pressure because we still got more games left.”
He converted three free throws early in the third quarter before connecting again to reach the milestone.
“It feels really good,” he said of the achievement. “Last time we played on this floor we had a tough loss to Wheatland, so it was a nice bounce-back game for us.”
Nearly 12 months ago C.G. Finney’s Markus Robinson reached 2,000 career on the same court.
Garwood now shares the distinction with former teammate Miles Brown of being the only Northstar Christian players to score 2,000 points or more. Brown went on the become Section V’s all-time scoring leader with 2,914 points. He and his twin brother, Michael Brown, now attend school and play basketball at Ohio University.
“Shout out to them,” the Roberts Wesleyan commit said. “I’ve tried to follow the example of Miles and Michael. They were great leaders. They paved a path of what I have to do to achieve milestones like this.”
Garwood finished with a game-high 27 points in the 87-59 win over Harley-Allendale-Columbia. Teammates Andrew Eschner and Ben Gritsak connected on five 3-pointers apiece and scored 17 points apiece. Justin Robinson had two threes and eight points. O’Neal finished with six points while Kyle Torrey (3), Josiah Zeafla (3) and Garvin Jones (2) rounded out the scoring for Northstar Christian.
HAC’s Max Yamil-Cabezudo–Brown scored 20 points to lead the Wolves. Theo Colosimo added 12 points. Ryan Curwin (8), Quinn Hartman (7), Rafael Ferguson (8) and Carter Reid also scored for the Wolves.
HAC will open the Class C3 tournament next week as the No. 6 seed.
Northstar Christian earned the top seed in Class B1.
As for Garwood’s defensive play that brought out a an emotional response from his dad.
“He likes the little things more than the big things,” Garwood said of the five-count he drew on an opposing ballhandler. “I know a lot of coaches, him in particular, who like five-second counts and taking charges. He just likes us to see our effort.”
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