Alone at the top.
That’s where West Aurora senior guard Jontrell Walker finds himself after scoring 66 points in two games last weekend to push past Billy Taylor and Juwan Starks at the top of the Blackhawks’ career scoring list.
“I was aware that I was close during (Friday’s Glenbard North) game but I was just playing to win that night. My main focus was to win and maintain first place in the (DuPage Valley) conference,” said Walker, who scored 36 in the 83-81 loss to the Panthers that put both teams in a three-way tie for first in the DVC at 9-2 with three games left to play.
Walker’s three-pointer in the final 10 seconds pulled the Blackhawks within the final margin to cap a furious rally from a 16-point deficit that fell just short.
It gave him 1,629 points in his four-year varsity career, two more than Starks accumulated from 2008-12. He passed Taylor (1987-91, 1,613) earlier in the evening.
“I was just blessed to do it,” Walker said of accomplishing the feat.
The following night, he scored 30 in a nonconference win at Downers South and currently stands at 1,659 points.
“We’ve got four or five ballgames left, too,” said West coach Gordie Kerkman. “I don’t even know when Juwan got his (record).”
Starks topped Taylor in his final game, a supersectional loss to Proviso East. The mark stood for 21 years when Starks topped it and Walker, who played alongside Starks for two seasons, erased it after only two years.
“He deserves it,” said Starks, who is currently taking classes at Kishwaukee Community College and redshirting, hoping to return to action next fall. “Jontrell has worked hard, putting in the time and work to succeed. I’m kinda glad he got it.”
Looking at some of the names on the school’s all-time list, Kerkman noted, “I’m probably considered a bit like Dean Smith in that respect. I remember him saying he was the only guy who could hold Michael Jordan to not too many points (because of an emphasis on team play).
“I probably held a lot of these guys (down), but I’d rather operate more on a team concept that flaunting a certain individual.”
It’s hard to argue with him, given his 777 wins accumulated through his 37-plus seasons that ranks seventh on the all-time list in Illinois.
“Jontrell has gotten a lot better each year, and not so much tonight, but in recent games teams have had a guy right in his face and they keep him in his face the whole ball game,” Kerkman said on Friday.
“The previous two games he’s gotten 17 and 16 points, but he hasn’t gotten a lot of good looks. He did get a little more freedom tonight.”
Walker broke the record in his 110th game. Starks played in 113 and Taylor 112. Now, he’s happy to put the record and talk of it on the backburner so the focus can be on the team and its quest for a conference crown and long playoff run.
“It shows how tough the conference is,” Walker said of the back-to-back losses to Naperville Central and Glenbard North. “I’d rather have ’em happen now than at tournament time, but we’re learning and we know we’ve gotta get better in transition to defend threes and we’ve gotta play better defense. You have to realize you’re gonna get help behind you.
“I’m glad to get (the record) out of the way. Now, we can focus on going downstate.”
