By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The air is getting a little thinner for Ellinwood senior Britton Dutton as he continues to climb the state's basketball history ranks. Entering Friday's game at Otis-Bison, just 49 prep players, boys or girls, in state history had scored at least 2,000 career points. Phillipsburg senior Taryn Sides reached that mark Friday in Hoxie, and Dutton scored 43 points in three quarters to become the 51st player in state history to accomplish the feat.
"When I was a freshman, I was setting goals," Dutton said. "One of them was to reach 1,000 points by the end of my high school career. I think getting 2,000 is just really cool."
Reaching 1,000 career points is the mark of a good high school basketball player. Dutton entered Friday night 38 points shy of 2,000, but that was hardly an obstacle. The Eagles improved to 18-1 with an 89-33 win. Dutton made 18 of his 27 shots in the game to reach the milestone in the third quarter.
"I knew I just had to be aggressive the whole game, from the start," he said. "I know I can score that much. Coach Derek (Joiner) told me exactly what I was thinking I needed to do, just be aggressive and really just play normal."
Many of the 50 scorers to reach the mark ahead of Dutton had extra state tournament games in their careers. Dutton has not yet played in a state game, but has been blessed with good health to make the most of all his regular-season and sub-state games.
"It's really an incredible accomplishment, especially after I have read how exclusive of a group it really is over the 100 plus years of Kansas high school basketball," Joiner said. "It makes sense when you think about it further. We only get 20 regular-season games in Kansas, so you have to be good as a freshman. Most kids get around 85-90 games in their career, so your average has to be 22-23 points per game for four years. Brit was fortunate to only have to miss one game in his career thus far. You have to be reliable and good at the same time. And our teams have been good all four years."
Ellinwood has posted a 74-14 record in Dutton's three-plus seasons. As a junior, he surpassed 1,400 career points to break the EHS record of 1,390 points, set by Todd Robins in 1986. He holds the school's single-game scoring record with 48 points, and has four of the top-five scoring games on record at EHS. Earlier this year, Dutton signed a letter of intent to continue his career at The University of Illinois-Springfield.
Ellinwood closes out the regular season Tuesday against Ness City. Joiner and Dutton wanted to get the personal feat out of the way ahead of Senior Night.
"So Brit might have been a bit more aggressive than normal versus Otis," Joiner said. "But if you watch the game, he still plays within the parameters of the game and nothing feels forced. In fact, I have had a lot college coaches and coaching friends that tell me he needs to look to score more throughout his career. But Brit plays within the game, which is why I think he's so efficient. He's averaging 26.9 points per game on 17.3 shot attempts per game. So knowing how he accomplished something so rare by just playing within himself and never really forcing the issue adds to the feat."
Fifth-ranked Ellinwood will be the No. 1 seed in a tough Sterling substate that includes No. 3 Moundridge, No. 7 Inman, and No. 8 Sterling, all with at least 15 wins on the season. The Eagles have fallen victim to Sterling in each of the past three postseasons, and the real goal, Dutton said, is to get the team to state.
"Truly just working hard every day and getting better at the things we need to get better at," he said. "Getting better at defense, esecially, because that's the big thing that's going to help us win."
Dutton and Sides surpassed 2,000 points Friday night. Greeley County senior Jaxson Brandl, who helped the Jackrabbits to the Class 1A, Div. II state title last March at Barton Community College, accomplished the feat earlier this month. Pawnee Heights senior Alec Carlson should surpass 1,900 points but will need some big games down the stretch to reach 2,000. With 2,005 career points, Dutton needs just 11 points to surpass Minneapolis' Ryan Wedel at No. 20 on the state's all-time scoring list.