Fittingly, Hunter Ecklund scored La Center’s first and last points on a milestone night for the Wildcats’ junior point guard.
Ecklund’s game-high 33 points, including 21 in the first half, elevated the junior into the 1,000-point scoring club for his career in a 86-73 victory at Seton Catholic in the teams’ 1A Trico League boys basketball opener for both teams Thursday.
Ecklund wasn’t anticipating the emotions that followed scoring his ninth point off a backdoor cut along the baseline to sit at exactly 1,000 career points with 5 minutes, 17 seconds left in the first quarter. That gave La Center a quick 15-2 lead as part of a redhot first quarter for La Center (31 points).
But the 1,000s of hours in the gym growing up with dad, who also happens to be fourth-year Wildcats head coach Jeremy Ecklund, made it equally emotional for dad and son.
“I don’t really get that emotional,” Hunter Ecklund said, “but that one really hit me. … Calling that timeout made it really special.”
Said Jeremy Ecklund: “As a coach and a dad, it’s special. Not everybody hits 1,000 points … it doesn’t happen that often. He and I have spent a lot of time in the gym over the years, a lot of one on one time. He’s put the work in.”
Ecklund joins Prairie’s Kam Osborn, Fort Vancouver’s James Husband, Jr., Stevenson’s Isaac Hoidal and Seton’s Isaiah Parker to surpass 1,000 career points just in the past week.
La Center’s now won 10 straight over Seton dating back to their first meeting in the 2014-15 season. That includes all three meetings last season, including a 57-56 district semifinal win its way to capturing the 1A district crown.
Thursday, it was anything but easy, though. La Center (10-1, 1-0) led from start to finish, scored 31 first-quarter points and led by as many as 20 five minutes into the game. But foul trouble, plus Seton’s third-quarter interior play and outside shooting, helped the Cougars (8-3, 0-1) get as close as five midway through the third. Three free throws by Gabe Anderson, who had 12 of his 16 points after halftime, got Seton to within 57-52 with 4:17 left in the third.
But first-year coach Kris Small couldn’t help but overlook his team’s sluggish start falling behind. At one point, Seton trailed 22-2 against 1A’s second-ranked team.
“The way they put it on us in the first minute and a half was really the difference,” Small said. “Their intensity level was so far above ours … They put it right on us and shows us what it means to play championship basketball.”
Four Seton players finished in double figures, led by Parker’s 18, Anderson’s 16 and 10 apiece from Andrew Olson and Delano Morgan.
Colby Shaw had 12 of his 18 in the first half, and Matt Bryant scored 13 of his 15 in the final two quarters for La Center, which didn’t have a field goal the first 4 minutes of the fourth, yet still led 76-66. Matt Bryant scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half for La Center.
