Kobe Bryant. Wilt Chamberlain. Soren Crumb?
The first two names sound familiar to basketball fans, but the third, Soren Crumb, is a Grade 12 high school basketball player for the Aberdeen Hall Gryphons in Kelowna.
What do they all have in common? Dropping 65 points in a single game.
Crumb’s accomplishment was a program record, doing so in an emphatic 116-64 victory over the KSS Owls B team on Wednesday night. The 17-year-old forward scorched the net, scoring 41 in the second half alone, finishing the game drilling eight three-pointers and going a tidy 12 of 13 from the free throw line.
“I just felt really comfortable,” the 6 foot 2 Crumb told Kelowna Capital News. “I have had similar nights to (Wednesday), but that was just crazy.”
What made the record-setting night even more sweet? The fact that Noah Maradyn, the now-former record holder (at 64 points), was sitting on the bench the whole night, helping out head coach Michael Hooper.
“In warm-ups, Soren basically told Noah ‘I am coming for your record,’” said Hooper to Kelowna Capital News.
Crumb explained that the comment was done in jest, but, when the smoke cleared on 40 minutes of game action, the statement ended up becoming real.
“He just kept hitting tough, contested shots,” added Hooper. “I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
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For Crumb, he maintained that he wasn’t really thinking about the record, until the fourth when his teammate, Marcus Hodelet, came on the court and told him that he was six points away from the record.
“I just started jacking up threes, and the next thing I know, I was one over it.”
“Noah was sweating a little bit sitting next to me (throughout the fourth quarter), which I found hilarious,” Hooper said. “A lot of people thought that record would never fall, so it was impressive.”
Hooper did point out that Maradyn, who coaches the junior boys’ team, does still hold the record for most threes in a game, with 12, which he thinks will “probably never get broken,” but after Tuesday’s performance, anything is on the table.
As the dust settled on a once-in-a-lifetime night, Crumb is trying to stay in the moment.
“I want to find a way to replicate the comfortable mindset that I felt on the court on Tuesday, and apply that into the Valleys,” he said.
The Gryphons are into the Valley Championships next weekend (Feb. 23-25) as the top-ranked team out of the Okanagan, after defeating the Kelowna Christian Knights in the city finals, 74-37.
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