Chargers Have Had A Fair Share Of Scoring Tandems

Last week we took a look at some me of the top scoring combinations in the long stories history of Crawfordsville High School, today we will look at the same for North Montgomery High School.

In just the third year of play, the Chargers had a very good 1-2-3 scoring combination. Leading the way was Hal Shelton who tossed in 543 points. That was a school record until someone name D.J. Byrd came along and broke it in 2008-09.

Shelton averaged 22.6 points a game with a high of 36. However, he had plenty of help as Roger Campbell added 14.7 points a game (353 total points) and Steve Pruett added 14.3 points a game (344 total points). As a trio they accounted for 1,240 points or 51.6 points a game. As a side note to that team member, Mark Milburn also averaged in double figures averaging 11.1 points a game and Ken Bullerdick averaged right at 9.0 points a game.

During the 1973-74 season the Chargers scored 90 or more points 10 times of its way to a 19-5 record under head coach Chuck Kriston. The team hit for more than 100 three times including a high of 110 points against North Vermillion in a 110-70 win on the road. In fact, all three of the 100 point games that year were on the road.

The following year, Milburn and Bullerdick accounted for 740 points in their senior season. Milburn led the way with 376 points for a 16.3 average and Bullerdick added 364 points for a 15.8 average. Together they averaged 32.1 points

It was 15 years before another duo could top that mark. During the 1989-90 season Tony Gineris had just the second 400-point season in the history of Charger basketball and averaged an even 19.0 points a game as he tallied 418 points in 22 games. Teammate Mike Morrison threw in 298 points for a 13.5 average and the pair ended up averaging 32.5 points a game.

Individually, Phil Cox just missed the 400-point club in the 1991-92 season as he tallied 399.

The next big-time scorer for the Chargers was BJ Schlicher, even though he is the second-leading scorer in Charger history with 1,326 points, he never joined the 400-point club. Oh, he came close. As a junior he tallied 387 points (17.6 average) and as a senior he scored 392 (17.8 average).

As a senior, Schlicher and Shaun Ratliff (who scored 336 points) combined for 728 points in the season which was good enough for a combined 33.0 average.

In the mid to late 2000s the Chargers had a string of potent scoring tandems — and all had one thing in common a guy named Byrd.

In 2005-2006 Kevin Kyle averaged 19.4 points game by scoring 470 points and a freshman by the name of Byrd added 320 points for an average of 13.9 points. That gave the pair an average of 33.3 points a game.

That was just the beginning.

The next year Byrd raised his total to 410 (17.8 per game) and he paired up with A.J. Sutherlin who tossed in 297 (14.1) and they averaged 33.6 points combined. In his junior season, Byrd and Sutherlin each added to their previous year’s totals. Byrd averaged 23.9 (502 points) Sutherlin averaged 18.7 as they combined for a whopping 42.6 points a game by tallying 895 combined points.

As a senior, Byrd broke the school record for points in a season as he had 553 (despite missing games due to a knee injury) and averaged 24.0 a game, Clay Pierce added 301 points for a 12.5 averaged. Combined the pair tallied 854 points.

And yes, Byrd is the all-time leading scorer for the Chargers with 1,785 points. He ranked second on the county’s all-time scoring list trailing just the scoring machine from Linden named Daryl Warren (2,083).

Then just last year Caleb Randolph and Justin Clary teamed up to average 35.2 points a game. Randolph tossed in 436 points for a 19.0 average and Clary added 373 for a 16.2 average.