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Act of kindness leads to Dylan Gordon's milestone


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WARFORDSBURG - For Southern Fulton’s Dylan Gordon, who averages 16.5 points per game, the idea of scoring 26 points at home on Tuesday to reach his 1,000th career point might have been a stretch.

But Tussey Mountain's boys basketball team wasn’t going to force him to achieve that milestone on the road.

Despite being down by more than 20 points in the fourth quarter and ultimately suffering a 69-48 loss, Tussey Mountain coach Randy Meck had his team foul Gordon with 15 seconds left in the game, knowing he needed one point to reach his 1,000th.

"There was only 15 seconds to go, and I just needed one point," Gordon said. "We were in-bounding the ball, and I was just going to try to run down and get a shot. But they fouled me to give me a chance. I thanked their coach a lot for that."

Maybe it was nerves, or maybe it was just bad luck, but Gordon missed his first free throw.

But he got re-set on the line and let one fly. Swish.

"It was pretty amazing," Gordon said. "I know for people like (Olivia Mottern, an SF junior who scored her 1,000th point this season) and I, everyone is looking for 1,000 points, and we work really hard off the court. It feels good to see all that paying off, and doing it as a junior, that makes it mean a little bit more for me."

SF coach Kent Hendershot said, "It was a real class act. It was so crazy before the game that I forgot to tell (Meck), so I mouthed over to him in the last minute, and they unintentionally intentionally fouled him. I think he was a little nervous on the first one, but he calmed down on the second and drained it.”

Not only did Gordon hit the milestone, he also finished with a double-double by pulling down 12 rebounds, and he had four assists.

Other big contributors for Southern Fulton (16-3, 13-1 SHL, 12-0 ICC) were Zach Clark, who scored a career-high 19 points, and Trent Rider, who finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

"We were running on empty tonight from the weekend," Hendershot said. "We were spent, and I thought it was a great team win."

So. Fulton 69, Tussey Mtn. 48

Tussey Mtn. (48)

Drew Sitch 0 1-2 1, Patrick Black 3 1-2 8, Ryan Leonard 7 3-4 19, Parker Cornelius 3 0-0 6, Andrew Bithell 5 4-9 14. Totals — 15 9-18 48.

So. Fulton (69)

Carl Potter 4 0-0 8, Zach Clark 6 3-3 19, Dylan Gordon 4 17-20 26, Trent Rider 5 0-0 10, Owen Hawkins 1 1-3 4, Logan Beatty 1 0-0 2, Chase Varner 0 0-0 0, Mitch Potter 0 0-0 0. Totals — .21 21-26 69.

Tussey Mtn. _ 14 _ 9 _ 9 _ 16 _ — _ 69

So. Fulton _ 14 _ 15 _ 14 _ 26 _ — _ 48

3-point goals — TM 3 (Leonard 2, Black), SF 6 (Clark 4, Gordon, Hawkins).

JV score — Southern Fulton 44, Tussey Mountain 19. Mitch Potter led Southern Fulton with 14 points.