Scoring 30 points against Suffield on December 19, Andover Boys Basketball Co-Captain Dallion Johnson ’20 broke the school scoring record of 1,159 points previously set by Joey Lokitis ’06.
Now with over 1,200 points scored, Johnson is grateful for the support of Head Coach Terrell Ivory ’00 throughout his years at Andover, and is looking forward to finishing his final season on the team strong.
“I’m very, very excited and also blessed to be here. It’s my fourth year, so I’ve just been in the gym working hard… Shout out to [Coach Ivory] for giving me the green light and always encouraging me, and allowing me to to hold the ball and score,” said Johnson. “[I look forward to] trying to win the championship, definitely make the playoffs, [and to] keep winning and winning our class games.”
Team member Nick Thomas ’21 is proud of his teammate’s success on the court.
Thomas said, “I remember when I first met [Johnson] when we played together. I’m happy—I knew that he was gonna be something big one day.”
Last Saturday, Andover secured a 69-57 win over Choate behind a 28-point effort from Johnson. This game extended the team’s winning streak to four games.
According to Sam Kumler ’21, the team played a strong first half and maintained its lead over Choate despite facing trouble in the second half.
“We played a solid first half and came out hot early in the second. We were able to build [over] a 15-point lead fairly quickly in the second [half], and managed to withstand a late surge by Choate for the win,” said Kumler.
Andover was able to meet its opponent’s energy and athleticism, according to Henry Meyers PG’20.
Meyers said, “I think that they were just a very physical team, and they’re probably one of the more athletic teams we’ve played so far. So we just kind of had to adjust to their athleticism early. But I think we did a good job matching their energy.”
The team’s four-game win streak was broken after falling 63-38 to Cushing on Wednesday, putting its current record at 4-5.
Thomas and Johnson believe that the team’s loss came as a result of low energy.
“We definitely could’ve done better on a lot of things, especially defensive-wise and putting the ball on, and staying strong with it… At first, it felt like we had it, and we could have won the game. Once it was there, we had the energy; once we started getting down, it was like ‘Man we’re down and we haven’t been down in a game in a while,’” said Thomas.
Johnson added, “I mean, it was a tough loss… We kind of gave up a little bit, but we also had a [few] good spurts in the game where we played hard… but we’ve got to play harder.”
Looking forward, the team hopes to play more cohesively together, and Meyers believes future games will look more promising.
Meyers said, “I think we’re just figuring out how to play with each other… We still haven’t played that many games so far, so as we get further into more conference games—just figuring out how we all play as a unit, and moving the ball, and offense, and playing team defense—I think we can figure that out. We have a really good chance to win more.”
The team will travel to Tabor this Saturday.
