Darius Harrington makes history as Dixon downs Oregon

OREGON – He has reached the pinnacle of the Dixon record book, but Darius Harrington isn’t done yet.

The senior forward is the Dukes’ new all-time leading scorer after passing Beau Bailey with a 25-point performance in a 62-40 win over Oregon on Tuesday at the Blackhawk Center, but he’s not ready to rest on his laurels quite yet.

“It feels great, just hard to describe. I’m just really happy that the hard work I’ve put in has finally paid off,” he said. “And obviously, I’m still climbing that ladder, there’s still a lot of games left in the season, and there are plenty more points to be scored and many more games for us to win as a team.”

[ Photos from Dixon at Oregon boys basketball ]

The record-breaker came with 2:02 left in the third quarter in the midst of a 17-3 run. A couple of minutes after tying Bailey at 1,781 career points with a post bucket on a pretty drive-and-dish play from Brody Nicklaus, Harrington shot a deep 3 that rimmed out, and the crowd reacted with disappointed “oohs”. But the Dukes secured the rebound and coach Chris Harmann called timeout to set up a play.

Out of the timeout, Cullen Shaner passed the ball to Eli Davidson on the left wing. Davidson then passed it back to Shaner at the top of the key before setting a screen for Harrington on the left baseline. Harrington cut to the middle of the lane, caught Shaner’s pass and hit a short jumper over a defender as his teammates – and the many Dixon fans in the crowd – cheered.

“I did take a deep 3 – I thought it was a good shot, it was right there – but Coach drew up a play and it worked perfectly. It was just great execution,” Harrington said. “I thought we were up by 12 or 15, but I scored and looked up and saw were up by 22. It just feels really good to get the win on top of the record, it really does.”

“I think it was inevitable. I mean, 21 points, he can put that up in a quarter, legitimately. Oregon did everything they could to not let him touch the ball, and the dude still ends up with 25,” Davidson said. “We were all excited for it. Of course, you want to come out and execute the game plan, but in the back of your head, it’s hard to not be thinking about that the whole time, really.”

In a classy move, Oregon (14-13, 4-3 Big Northern) stopped the game and announced the feat, to even more applause.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Oregon coach Jarrett Reynolds said after the game. “Darius is a great player, and he deserved it.”

Dixon (21-5, 4-2 BNC) opened the game on a 10-2 run, then pushed the lead to 23-13 late in the second quarter. But Benny Olalde hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 23-19. The margin was 25-21 at halftime.

Nicklaus nailed a 3 to start the second half, then Harrington and Shaner answered baskets by Jackson Caposey and Cooper Johnson to make it 34-25. Two free throws by Olalde made it 34-27, then Harrington hit a pair of foul shots to stretch the lead back to nine.

That ignited the surge that pushed Dixon to a 51-30 lead just 1:16 into the fourth quarter.

“I think the energy just switched as he got closer [to the record],” Nicklaus said. “Everybody got really excited and we just went on a big run. Basketball’s a game of momentum, and we really caught on to it and started hitting shots.”

“You love to see the guy do something crazy like that. It’s unbelievable to be a part of that,” Davidson added. “That’s our guy, that’s your best friend right there, so seeing him do something like that, you think, ‘All right, we’ve got to make this a statement game for him.’ It’s about him, and you don’t want another storyline like he does that, but you lose the game. You’ve got to be able to highlight what he did with a win.”

Harrington added 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals, and now has 1,786 points in his career. Davidson had 13 points, three assists and two steals, Nicklaus (four steals, two assists, two blocks) and Shaner (five rebounds, four assists, three steals) added eight points each, and Brady Feit and Jackson Koehler each scored four.

The Dukes assisted on 13 of their 22 baskets, and also forced 20 Oregon turnovers, scoring 12 points off of 13 steals while committing only six turnovers themselves.

“We did a good job getting to open spots, kind of settling for what they were giving us and being patient, not making anything overly difficult on ourselves,” Davidson said. “We were able to find Darius, and he was able to pass out of it just as much as score tonight, so that makes it even easier.”

Olalde hit four of the Hawks’ seven 3s and finished with 15 points and three rebounds. Caposey added eight points and five rebounds, Johnson (five rebounds) and Nole Campos (two 3-pointers) both scored six points, and Tucker O’Brien chipped in two points, seven rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

“The turnovers in the third quarter kind of killed us, and it didn’t help our case when they had uncontested buckets going the other way. We were just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot at that point,” Reynolds said. “I thought our guys played hard, but it’s a tough matchup. Rockford Lutheran just did it to them too, trying to limit Darius, so they kind of knew what to expect a little bit, and they knew how to adjust coming out in the second half.”