AJ Demirov nets Crystal Lake South’s all-time scoring record

Little did Phil Wallace know years ago when he started training a precocious dribbler of the basketball that the boy would one day break his high school scoring record.

When Crystal Lake South senior point guard AJ Demirov sank a 3-pointer in transition and drew the foul in the first quarter against visiting Crystal Lake Central on Friday night, it was reality.

The basket gave Demirov 1,865 career points, one more than the school-record total posted by Wallace, who graduated from South in 2004. The game was stopped, those sitting in South’s Swamp stood and applauded, and Gators coach Matt LePage handed the game ball to Wallace, who dished it to Demirov.

“Friday was like a surreal moment,” Demirov said. “It all became real [after the record-breaking basket]. I wasn’t really thinking about [the record] that much, maybe a little before the game. But then when the the standing ovation and the whole celebration happened, I was like, ‘Dang.’ ”

Wallace had been at South’s previous game against Huntley. He coaches and trains players in the area and attends multiple high school games every year.

“I wasn’t going to miss [the record-breaking night] for anything,” said Wallace, who lives in West Dundee and has seen his first-year Midwest Monsters program grow to 10 teams.

“Phil recognized how cool of a moment it was and really was a big part of the night,” LePage said. “Our guys loved seeing him be a part of it along with several alum in attendance.”

Well before then, Wallace saw the makings of a special player. Demirov said he was in about third grade when Wallace, a 6-foot-4 guard/forward who played collegiately at Coastal Carolina, started working with him as a skills coach. A couple of years later, Wallace became Demirov’s AAU coach for A2Zoe Basketball Elite.

“He was one of my first basketball coaches,” Demirov said. “He helped a lot to develop me into a basketball player.”

Wallace remembers of the days of trying to mold a player who he now considers one of the best point guards in the state.

“Around that time it was always fun because you have skilled players and you have skilled, confident players who you know have that edge to be really great,” Wallace said. “It’s just been fun watching him grow as an athlete.”

“It all worked out pretty well. I really wanted to get [the record] against Central, on senior night, especially since I knew that game would be more packed.”

—  AJ Demirov, on breaking Crystal Lake South's all-time scoring record

After Demirov’s freshman season on varsity, when he averaged about 10 points a game, Wallace said he told him he was on pace to break his South scoring record. Demirov said his dad, Jason, who’s also a South graduate, brought it to his attention about a year ago that the mark was within reach.

“My dad was telling me, ‘You don’t need that much next season. You need to average only like 17 (points a game) to get it,‘ ” said Demirov, who averaged 20 points a game as a junior in helping South win the Class 3A Kaneland Sectional. “Coach LePage updated me every once and a while during [this] season, but he didn’t want it to get in my head.”

Demirov headed into Friday’s senior night game against Central thinking he needed six points to break the school record. His 3-pointer gave him five points, which was actually all he needed to surpass Wallace.

“I thought I was going to have to go hit the free throw, but then all of a sudden they stopped the game,” Demirov said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on?' ”

After the celebration, the game resumed with Demirov making his free throw to complete a four-point play. He finished with 10 points, as South rolled to a 78-53 win to stay tied with McHenry atop the Fox Valley Conference standings.

“It was fun passing the torch,” Wallace said.

“It all worked out pretty well,” Demirov said. “I really wanted to get [the record] against Central, on senior night, especially since I knew that game would be more packed.”

Demirov’s weekend was just getting started. He had a 4 a.m. wakeup call Saturday so he could fly to Newberry, South Carolina, for an official visit with Newberry College, an NCAA Division II program. Newberry saw the 6-foot, 165-pound Demirov play at Jacobs’ Hinkle Holiday Classic, where he helped South reach the championship game, and offered him a scholarship.

“It was pretty cool,” Demirov, who has D-I offers from Eastern Illinois and Southern Illinois, said of his visit to Newberry. “I liked the campus. I liked the coaches.”

South (25-4, 14-2 FVC) was scheduled to visit Jacobs on Tuesday, before finishing the regular season Friday at Hampshire. The Gators are the No. 2 seed in subsectional A of the Class 3A Rochelle Sectional. They open the postseason Feb. 26 at Prairie Ridge against the winner of Crystal Lake Central/Prairie Ridge. With nearly 1,900 points, Demirov could reach 2,000 points if South makes another lengthy postseason run.

According to IHSA records, only 175 boys in state history have hit the 2,000-point plateau. The list includes Johnsburg’s Zach Toussaint (2019 graduate, 2,249 points), Crown’s Gary Gliesmann (1981 grad, 2,011) and Marian Central’s Christian Bentancur (2024 grad, 2,049).

“My goal going into the season was to get 2,000,” Demirov said. “Not a lot of people get to say they scored 2,000 in their high school career. I think that would be really cool.”