Richie Jones (2) is surrounded by happy teammates as he holds his commemorative ball after scoring his 1,000th point in a CJ III tournament win over North Burlington Friday night (Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick)
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Mar. 2: Richie Jones helped the Nottingham boys’ basketball team make history tonight.
With 6:42 remaining in the third quarter of the Northstars 73-57 Central Jersey Group III win over Northern Burlington, Jones took a nice, easy 3-pointer from the top of the key that swished through, making him the 12th player in school history to hit the coveted 1,000-point mark.
Even more impressively, he is the third senior on this year’s Nottingham team to reach the milestone, along with Cliff Joseph and Darell Johnson.
That makes the Northstars the only team in Mercer County to ever have three 1,000-point scorers on the team all at the same time. The 1997 Steinert team came close, as Brian Bigos, Dahntay Jones and Dave Hutchinson all scored 1,000, but Hutch reached the mark in 1998, a year after Bigos graduated.
Richie Jones launches a 3-pointer from the top of the key that would find its way through the net and give the senior his 1,000th point. Jones joined teammates Cliff Joseph and Darell Johnson in the 1,000-point club, as Nottingham became the first Mercer County team to ever have three 1,000-point scorers on its team at once (Photo by Wes “The Media Mogul” Kirkpatrick).
And it appears the Northstars are only the third team in New Jersey history to have three on the team at once, joining Paulsboro and Wall, which amazingly both did it in the same year (2015).
“This just means that these kids are so unselfish,” coach Chris “The Baron” Raba said. “It’s not just barely getting 1,000. Cliff’s got 1800, Darell’s got 1400. It’s 4000 points between the three of them. Two of them have done it the old-fashioned way, playing three years. Cliff played four years. The old-fashioned way was you never played as a freshman, so Richie and Darell did it that way. I’ll tell you what, I couldn’t be any prouder to have a record like that.”
Actually, Joseph did it the old-fashioned way sort of, since he scored his 1,000th as a junior.
As for Jones, it looked like a long-shot at mid-season, as he was still a good distance off. But Raba allowed him to stay in until the end of games to try and make a run at it, and Jones came up with some monstrous scoring efforts to put himself in position.
“I always thought I could get it,” King Richard said. “I came into the season with this as one of my goals. Once we got close to MCTs and we were winning, I thought ‘Damn, I really could get this.’”
He needed 10 entering tonight and scored seven in the first half but shot just 3-for-10. He scored a quick bucket to start the third quarter, and then drained a three from Jones Junction.
“I turned around to (assistant) Brandon (Johnson),” Raba said, “and said ‘That’s his typical shot, right there, right on top of the key. Bang!’”
Knowing there was a berth in the sectional finals on the line, Jones wanted to get the focus off him and was happy to get it out of the way, calling it “a relief.”
“I actually was nervous coming into the game,” he said. “I just (fought the nerves) playing defense, getting out in transition, playing our game.”
And when he released the milestone shot?
“I followed it and I was like ‘Oh man, this one’s gotta go,’” he said with a grin. “I missed two before that.”
So, Jones is now part of the most dynamic trio in Nottingham basketball history. It’s a threesome that can not only score, but all of them can also pass the ball well, particularly Jones.
“Most guys who score 1,000 are a little bit selfish, these three aren’t,” Raba said. “It shows on the court. They’ve played 100 or more games together. They know where each other are.”
Jones couldn’t agree more, saying, “most definitely. The way we share the ball, we try to get everyone going. It just shows how tremendous we are playing as a team.”
A team that’s made history in so many ways this year.
But won’t be happy until it makes some more.
