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St. Marys' Austin Parks dunks the ball during Tuesday's game at Coldwater. Parks became the Roughriders' all-time leading scorer with a 24-point effort in the Riders' 71-37 victory.
COLDWATER - Austin Parks admitted that he was doing some scoreboard watching on Tuesday night.
The St. Marys senior came in just 24 points away from breaking the career scoring record for the Roughriders.
Early on, it looked like the Roughrider faithful would have to wait until Friday to see the record broken, but Parks got hot in the second half, hitting 24 points with a dunk for the record-breaker with 4:58 remaining in the game as St. Marys rolled past Coldwater 71-37 at the Palace on Tuesday night. It marks the sixth straight win for the Roughriders (10-5) as Coldwater suffers its first home loss of the season.
"Lot of great players came through this school," said Parks, who passed Roughrider greats Adam Johns, Garet Fledderjohann, Damon Goodwin and Mark Ashman up the leaderboard before surpassing Derek Jay's mark of 1,296, set in 2017, in his final shot of the game. "To be at the top means a lot to me.
"This was really the first game I was tracking (the points)," said Parks, who will take his game to The Ohio State University next season. "I heard how close I was and I kept looking at the scoreboard, but I had to play the normal game I usually play."
"Congratulations to Austin. It's a great accomplishment," said St. Marys coach Dan Hegemier.
St. Marys' Austin Parks fist-bumps coach Dan Hegemier after breaking the school career scoring record against Coldwater at the Palace on Tuesday.
The Cavaliers focused much of their defensive effort on stopping Parks, who entered the night averaging 20.1 points per game, doubling down whenever he got the ball inside and working to keep him from getting down in the low post.
While they bottled up Parks, that left Jace Turner and Brayden Sullivan free. Sullivan hit a couple of big 3-pointers early and Turner was able to get some shots in the paint as Parks kept finding the open man. That, along with Coldwater struggling to hit baskets - making just 3-of-21 in the first half - allowed St. Marys to open an 18-6 lead after one quarter and to push it to 33-15 at halftime.
"We play a team that puts two, three players on Austin inside, that leaves someone else open," said Hegemier. "Sully in the first half did a great job and dropped some shots. Jace hit some shots inside. Our defensive effort at the start of the game was really good."
Coldwater's Brady Lefeld, center, and Luke Schwieterman, right, defend against St. Marys' Evan Angstmann.
"We had some different bodies on him," said Coldwater coach Nick Fisher. "I thought Justin Kaup did a good job on him and thought Luke (Schwieterman) did a good job on him. But overall, our reaction (to others scoring), I wasn't happy with that. I don't think we played with enough energy."
Parks, who had eight points in the first half, began to take control in the second as his teammates looked to get him the ball inside. When he didn't get buckets, he went to the foul line and made free throws.
After hitting a free throw to cut his margin to the record to two, Parks missed a shot, but got the steal and went back up for a dunk with just under five minutes to play to break Jay's record. Hegemier was able to get a timeout to allow Parks to receive an ovation from St. Marys and Coldwater fans and take the rest of the night off with a 24-point, five rebound game.
"I appreciated it," Parks said of his teammates looking to get him the record. "They knew the circumstances, too, and I'm thankful to have great teammates."
"He's a great player," said Fisher. "When he gets the ball down that low (in the paint), the baseline is his friend."
Coldwater, meanwhile, was able to make some shots to keep the game from really getting out of hand. Baylen Blockberger and Miles Pottkotter hit some threes in the second half, but St. Marys kept up its hot hand, shooting 13-of-19 from the floor in the second half (68.4%).
"Their length bothered us," said Fisher. "I saw Harley (Evan Harlamert) questioning his shot a couple of times. That's unlike him. Kudos to (St. Marys). When they're shooting the ball like that, they're a good team."
Turner and Sullivan each finished with 16 points, with Turner pulling down 11 rebounds for St. Marys.
Blockberger finished with 14 points. Luke Schwieterman and Pottkotter each added six.
While St. Marys heads to Kenton on Friday for Western Buckeye League play, Coldwater is back in the Palace to take on Versailles in a Midwest Athletic Conference game.
