It was a night that neither team will soon forget.
In a rare feat, two players on opposing teams scored their 1,000th career points during the same game.
West Allegheny was visiting South Fayette.
Toward the end of the game, South Fayette’s Mike Plasko hit a three-pointer with a little over 8 seconds left to get his 1000th point. The South Fayette faithful rushed the court to celebrate.
But, there was still time left in the game and West Allegheny‘s Brandon Bell needed one bucket to get to 1,000.
West Allegheny Ben O’Connor took Joe Starkey back a few seconds. He says with 15 seconds left, Brandon needed four more points to get 1,000. He was able to score with about 13 seconds left.
O’Connor called timeout and talked to his players on how they could get Brandon to the milestone number.
South Fayette got their play off and Plasko took a home run pass to hit the three to go over 1,000, something O’Connor wasn’t aware of until fans spilled onto the court.
O’Connor says he went over to South Fayette coach Dave Mislan. After some discussion, O’Connor said he was going to throw in the towel as long as Brandon could get a chance at 1,000.
“Dave is a class act and right away said yes,” said O’Connor.
O’Connor says the South Fayette players turned to him and said “we got you coach.”
“To be honest, as Brandon dribbled up the floor I got nervous is was going to miss the layup, but he made it, 1.9 seconds left and time for fans to get on the floor again and celebrate, it was pretty cool,” said O’Connor.
A large majority of people called it a remarkable showing of sportsmanship.
“Dave showed a lot of class, his team showed a lot of class, the entire gymnasium showed a lot of class,” said O’Connor.
To the “old school” people that don’t think that South Fayette should’ve let Brandon score, O’Connor has a message for them.
“Some people are kind of old-school stiff and saying he didn’t earn it and blah, blah, blah, but anyone associated with amateur sports should understand why that happened and if not, shame on them,” said O’Connor.
South Fayette won the game 60-51, but it was the two players who both hit the 1,000-point milestone that will be remembered for years to come.
Mike White covered the story in-depth in the Post-Gazette