Triton senior Bobby Beecher had a senior day to remember for the Mustangs, when he joined the 1,000-point club and broke the program record for points in a single game, with 46 against Gateway.
Going into Triton’s senior-day game against Gateway, senior Bobby Beecher knew he wanted to put on a show.
A four-year player and three-year starter with the Mustangs, Beecher was just 26 points away from membership in the program’s 1,000-point club. He’d averaged 20.8 points per game through the team’s first 13 matchups of the season and scored 26 points or more in five of those games. Reaching a high-school basketball milestone was certainly within reach.
Yet, the performance the senior ended up putting on display would be more than just a good game: Beecher let loose for, quite possibly, the most dominant game in Triton boys basketball history.
“I was just confident in myself; I knew I wanted to hit 1,000 that day if I could beforehand, but I really didn’t spend much time thinking about it,” Beecher said. “I felt good early and just focused on doing what I could to help us win, and it just so happened to play out how it did.”
With 26 points needed to become the 1,000-point club’s 13th member, Beecher dropped 30 by halftime, when he became aware that he was close to breaking the program’s single-game points record. By the end of the night, Beecher had entered the Mustangs’ record books in front of friends and family on Senior Night, scoring 46 points, including 11 three-pointers, in a 84-32 victory over Gateway.
“I was thinking maybe I’d hit the shot to join the 1,000-point club somewhere in the fourth quarter coming down to crunch time, but I guess I heated up a little bit in the first quarter and was able to get it out of the way early,” the player said.
While there is obviously still a season to finish, Beecher’s performance was just another standout from a student-athlete who has meant plenty to the Triton boys basketball program over his four years, according to his coach.
“It’s tough to put into words how much he’s meant to us … He’s a guy that our younger players, whether it’s freshmen, JV or varsity guys, all look up to,” coach Andrew Canzanese said. “I’m not sure if he realizes how important he is to these younger guys.
“He sets a great example on and off the court and they see his work ethic.”
Having been introduced to Beecher during the student’s eighth grade season – when two of Triton’s sending-district middle schools played against one another – Canzanese said he was immediately impressed with the skill set Beecher had at such a young age.
With some injuries to other varsity players during Beecher’s freshman season, he saw perhaps more minutes than first anticipated. But that led to him scoring the most points on the team during the 2019-’20 season, while being the only player to appear in all of Triton’s 24 games that season.
From early in his sophomore year, Beecher was a fixture of the Mustangs’ offense who was bound to make his presence known on a nightly basis. He led the team with 75 three-pointers that season.
“We knew he could really shoot three-pointers well coming in, and he even still did a lot of catch-and-shoot stuff his sophomore year, too,” Canzanese said. “But he spent so much time developing his all-around game and really added a couple more dimensions before his junior year … It’s something where he put in a tremendous amount of time to improve.”
