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Football is firmly in his future, but Kaneland’s Troyer Carlson has unfinished business the rest of the season of what is fast becoming a storied high school basketball career.
The senior guard looks like he’ll be taking care of it.
A 6-foot-2 quarterback prospect committed to traditional NCAA Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater, Carlson broke plenty of hometown hearts last week with the play of the tournament late in the final game of the 60th annual Plano Christmas Classic.
“I had a bad three quarters, I have to say — I played out of control and selfish,” said Carlson, a four-year varsity starter in both sports who’s on track to become the program’s all-time leading scorer in basketball.
“I knew at that point in the game — we were down by like six with a couple minutes to go — if I want to be a leader on the team, I’ve gotta do something to put us in position to win. That’s all I tried to do.”
Mission accomplished.
Carlson drove off the left hip of 6-6 junior forward Freddy Hassan, the tourney MVP who was setting a pick on the right wing at the 3-point line. Freed from the defense of 5-10 senior Waleed Johnson, Carlson stepped back and rattled home the shot with 3.3 seconds remaining for a 55-53 win.
“It wasn’t clean but it got the job done,” Carlson said.
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It was the first lead of the game for top-seeded Kaneland (13-3).
Unseeded Plano (8-8), led by all-tournament selections AJ Johnson and Davione Stamps, fell short of pulling off a fourth straight upset, which would have given the home team its first title.
Enthusiasm grew for the Reapers as they knocked off seventh-seeded Morris, second-seeded Burlington Central and sixth-seeded Marmion on their way to a seventh title game appearance but first since 1980.
“It is cool for these kids to do this,” Plano coach Kyle Kee said after beating Burlington Central, the two-time defending champions. “I’d love to finish this thing out.”
Speaking of finishing — Carlson, who averages 17.3 points, had been held to eight with 2:30 left but scored the Knights’ last nine points.
Three times he drove to the basket for layups, two on reverses as he challenged Plano’s shot-blockers in 6-10 junior center/forward Isaiah Martinez and 6-4 senior forward Chris Keleba.
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“I got swatted a lot going to the hole like that earlier, so I had to figure out a way to make a shot,” Carlson said, drawing on the experience of challenging two older sisters and older brother Ty, a 1,000-point scorer for Aurora University.
“I’m the youngest and they’re all athletic. Playing in the front yard, you have to find ways to score against bigger people. And then in practice, we have Freddy’s younger brother (freshman) Jeffrey, who is 6-8.”
Freddy Hassan averaged 16.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in the tournament.
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“Freddy’s a load with his length,” Kee said. “He and Isaiah were going at it all night. It was quite a battle in there.”
Carlson keeps climbing the list of Kaneland’s top scorers. He’s now fourth at 1,284 points after passing 2010 graduate David Dudzinski (1,265) during the tournament.
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In his sights with 15 regular-season games remaining are 1999 graduate P.J. Fleck with 1,292 points, 1969 graduate Dan Witt with 1,444 and 1982 graduate Joe Fisher with 1,450.
Dudzinski (Holy Cross) has played professionally overseas for nearly 10 years. Fleck (Northern Illinois) is Minnesota’s football coach. Witt was an Illinois State teammate of NBA player-turned-coach Doug Collins. Fisher led the Knights to an appearance in the Class A state finals on a team that included former NFL receiver Don Beebe.
Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe, meanwhile, is comfortable with Carlson taking those big shots.
“He’s a senior and he’s earned it,” Colombe said. “You could tell he was feeling it. He’s not afraid to miss, and that’s half the battle. He’s our leader. We wanted the ball in his hands.
“And it worked out tonight.”