Co-Captain Dallion Johnson ’20 has been a captain of Andover Boys Basketball since his Lower year.
Against Williston, Co-Captain Dallion Johnson ’20 swiftly gathered a pass and sunk a pull-up three-pointer to surpass 1,000 points in his Andover Boys Basketball career. After the shot, the game paused, setting the scene for a moment Johnson says he will never forget.
“It was just so crazy and unreal,” said Johnson. “Everyone who has supported me was there. I’m just really grateful for everyone who was there during the moment. When they actually stopped the game for me, that made the feeling even crazier and it was just an surreal moment.”
Johnson scored his 1,000th point in only 55 games, which is a true representation of his consistency since his Junior year, according to Head Coach Terrell Ivory ’00.
Ivory said, “At the level of basketball we’re playing, it’s hard to come in as a ninth grader and play significant minutes. But he not only played significant minutes, but he started pretty much every game in his ninth grade year.”
“He’s an unbelievable talent who has a gift of scoring the basketball but he also finds a way to help his teammates get better which I think is a very rare ability. I just love that he works so hard and scoring a thousand points is a testament to all the hard work he’s put in the position that he’s in and have so many options to play at the next level,” continued Ivory.
Despite making a second-half comeback after trailing by double-digits early, Andover fell short and lost 81-73 against Williston. The team also fell to Cushing 73-60 a day earlier against Cushing.
Against Cushing on Friday, Andover was unable to maintain its energy in the second half, according to Nick Thomas ’21 and Coach Ivory.
“We slowed down their offense to single digits in the first few minutes of the first half, but then our momentum went down. They eventually got the lead and after we went down, we just didn’t play like our normal selves,” said Thomas.
Ivory added, “We had a lot of open shots that we normally make that we just didn’t make and that’s just sometimes the ways it goes. That’s the game of basketball. Sometimes things just don’t go the way you want them to but as a coach, there are some losses that are easier to swallow than others. And this was one of them because of how hard we played.”
Andover bounced back with a 71-56 win over St. Paul’s on Wednesday, putting its record at 13-7 with three games remaining. According to Co-Captain Matteo Whelton ’20, Andover’s energy on the defensive end helped propel the team to victory.
Andover will face Pingree at home on Saturday and travel to Deerfield on Wednesday.
