CARROLLTON - Luke Gillingham surpassed 1,000 points in his career at Carrollton High School when he scored on a driving layup in the third quarter against the Triopia Trojans in the fifth place semifinal game, in the Waverly Holiday Tournament, on Dec. 29.
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“I always dreamed about it, but I wasn’t sure it was going to happen,” Gillingham said. “It kind of hit me and it kind of didn’t because it’s not something you thinking about in a tight game.”
He admitted that it was “a little awkward” once the game was stopped to recognize his achievement and the song “Celebrate Good Times” started to play through the loudspeakers in the gym.
“People were wondering what was going on, it was a little different,” Gillingham said with a laugh.
“Gillingham has been a great player and teammate for four years and any personal accomplishments that he gets I’m very excited for,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said.
Gillingham was usually first off the bench during his freshman season and already had a knack for knocking down three-pointers if he was open.
Since the start of the 2013 season as a sophomore he’s been starting ever since and has earned the vaunted “shooter” nickname that opponents shout out if he’s open on offense.
“I want to recognize him and all the hard work he’s put in,” Krumwiede said. “He’s all about the team first.”
Besides scoring his 1,000th point, he put on an impressive display at the tournament overall.
He racked up 72 points in four games and made 23 out of 24 free throws, which earned him a spot on the all-tournament first team.
Gillingham is the 16th player to score 1,000 points in the Jeff Krumwiede era at Carrollton in 21 seasons.
“We’ve been very lucky and had a great run with some great individual players and hopefully there’s some other young players right now on our team that has a chance to accomplish it next,” Krumwiede said.
Luke isn’t the only Gillingham that’s scored over 1,000 points at Carrollton his older brother Mark is in fact the all-time leading scorer in Hawks history with 2,134 points.
He is an IBCA Hall of Famer and played for Illinois College.
“My brother came here from Bloomington so I know it meant a lot to him to be here,” Gillingham said. “My sister and brother-in-law came from around St. Louis to watch it so it was pretty neat having them here,”
Luke is different from Mark because they’re over 10 years apart from each and Mark is taller than Luke, which was always going to make difficult for Luke to succeed in one on one.
However he was educated about the game at the same time from Mark and is grateful for that.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Gillingham said. “My brother is one of my best friends and he always beat me down in the drive way. I learned a lot from him growing up and it’s pretty neat to be in that category with him.”
So far Gillingham has been one of the big reasons why the Hawks are 7-2 going into their first game of the second half of the season.
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