Basketball notes: Four Bureau County players taking aim on 1,000 career points

As the hoops season heats up in the New Year, several Bureau County basketball players are approaching milestone marks.

Four players are setting their sights on the 1,000 career scoring club.

LaMoille senior Tyler Billhorn entered the New Year with 952 points and could become the eighth player in school history to score 1,000 points this month. With a 16.2 average and 12 regular-season games plus the Little Ten Conference Tournament postseason remaining, Billhorn could move himself up to No. 2 in the Lions scoring ranks.

Teammate Brayden Klein also has a shot at 1,000 points. With 219 points this year, averaging 15.6, he now has 812 and will be knocking on the door of 1,000 points at season’s end.

Roger Weller, who went on to play for Illinois State, is the all-time scoring leader for LaMoille, scoring 1,785 points from 1951-55. Jim Hild (1964-67) is No. 2 at 1,145.

Princeton junior Keighley Davis promises to be the next player to reach the 1,000 mark. She has 956 career points after Monday’s 22-point effort at Hall and 15 points at home Thursday vs. E-P. If she maintains her 14.3 scoring clip, she would hit 1,000 points at home on Jan. 18 vs. Alleman, if not before.

Davis would become the sixth Tigress to score 1,000 points and fourth in her family following her father, Spencer, who scored 1,429 for Manlius/Tampico, her brother, Teegan Davis, who scored 1,181 for Princeton, and her uncle, Luke Davis, who scored 1,100 points for Manlius and Bureau Valley, and

Next year, Davis will chase Tiah Romagnoli’s all-time PHS scoring record of 1,506, set from 1996-99.

Bureau Valley senior Landon Hulsing has run his career totals to 914 points with 193 this season, averaging 13.8 ppg. He would become the eighth Storm to crack the 1,000-point mark, a list headed by Parker Neuhalfen (2012-15) at 2,228.

Princeton senior all-stater Noah LaPorte hit the 1,000-point mark last year, but has his own target to hit this season. Despite missing five games to an ankle injury, costing him about 100 points with a 20.1 average, he has scored 205 points this season in nine games to raise his career total to 1,232 after Tuesday’s 24-point effort against Kewanee.

He has moved up to No. 6 in the Tigers’ all-time scoring charts this season, overtaking 7-footer Rick Larson (1966-69) 1,077, Matt McDonald (1989-92) 1,140, John Rumley (1976-79) 1,179 and former teammate Teegan Davis (2020-23) 1,181.

If LaPorte maintains his scoring clip and stays healthy, he would pass Tigers greats Vern Magnuson (1956-59) 1,234, Gary White (1963-66) 1,298 and Joe Ruklick (1953-55) 1,306 and then take aim on the all-time record of 1,468 set by Grady Thompson (2020-23), needing 237 points for the top spot.

Thompson, made a historic run to overtake Ruklick, the Tiger legend who was a prep and collegiate All-American and held the record for 68 years. Thompson scored all but 90 points that came during a condensed, 10-game COVID-19 sophomore season as a junior and senior, becoming the Tigers’ First-Team AP All-Stater since Ruklick 68 years before him.

Best bets in the junior class to join the 1,000 club next year are Princeton’s Camryn Driscoll and Hall’s Braden Curran.

After 19 points Tuesday, Driscoll has now scored 194 points this season, averaging better than 12.5 ppg for the Tigresses to raise her career total to 777.

Curran has scored 201 points this season, averaging 13.4 ppg and now has 527 for his career.

There have been a dozen 1,000-point scorers in the history of Hall boys basketball, topped by 1998 AP Class A Player of the Year Shawn Jeppson at 1,829. Jeppson also scored 1,000 points at Illinois State.

Trojans snap losing streak at Kingman

Ottawa’s Kingman Gymnasium is an imposing place for visiting teams and a hard-to-win gym. No one knows that better than the Mendota Trojans.

Mendota’s 61-48 win over the host Pirates at Kingman Gym was the first for the visitors in 29 years. The Trojans last won on the Pirates' home floor in February 1996, winning 68-61.

The Illinois Valley rivals have only recently revisited their rivalry following the breakup of the old NCIC in 2010-11.