Atwater basketball stars join prestigious club after eclipsing career milestone
Atwater High girls basketball coach JR Davis has seen nerves get the best of his players as they approach 1,000 career points.
It’s a big milestone and he’s seen a couple of his players press too much as they get closer to the mark.
So this time Davis didn’t tell senior Aliene Lopez she was just six points away from 1,000 career points before the Falcons game against Buhach Colony last week. He told her she was over 30 points away.
“I only told her we would call a timeout after she gets it,” Davis said. “I told everybody else though. Her family, coaches and teammates knew.”
So Lopez was shocked when Davis called a timeout and the game was stopped to celebrate Lopez’s achievement against the Thunder.
“I was just shocked,” Lopez said. “What’s going on? I did it?”
Lopez became the fourth Atwater girls player to join the 1,000 point club, joining Kelsey Valencia, Lexi Valencia and Amoni Claiborne.
“I looked up to all those players,” Lopez said. “I wanted to be just like the twins. It’s a big honor.”
Lopez wasn’t the only Falcons player to join the club.
The Atwater boys also celebrated when Colton Dukes scored his 1,000th career point on Monday night. Dukes becomes the second Falcons player to accomplish the milestone in the past two years after former teammate Robert Smid eclipsed 1,000 points last year.
Dukes is still a junior.
“It was a huge personal goal,” Dukes said. “I saw Robert do it last year. After I saw him do it, I definitely wanted to do it. To do it as a junior is special.”
Dukes needed 24 points on Monday and scored 25 points in a 62-44 win over Central Valley.
Dukes’ accomplishment was almost celebrated with a sign marking the achievement as he was surrounded by teammates.
Both Lopez and Dukes are third-year varsity players, stepping into leadership roles this year. Both are trying to lead their teams successful seasons.
The girls are 19-7 overall and 10-0 in the Central California Conference as they clinched back-to-back championships after a 65-39 win over El Capitan on Thursday night. Lopez is averaging 17 point per game. Her scoring has gone up each of her three years on varsity. She’s been around the basketball program since she was in sixth grade.
“It seems like I’ve been coaching her for so long,” Davis said. “She’s been blessed to be on good teams. Watching her become a leader and watching the evolution of her game has been amazing.”
Lopez said she’s happy to finish on the league championship team.
“I’ve always been one of the young ones. It’s crazy, I don’t feel like I’m a senior,” she said. “I hope the young players can look up to me and I can lead by example. It would mean a lot to leave the school on a team that’s known for winning. The one thing we haven’t done has gone far in the playoffs.”
The Atwater boys are 15-7 and 6-3 in the CCC and have work to do if they want to win back-to-back championships. The Falcons have a big game on Friday night against first place El Capitan (17-7, 8-1 CCC).
Dukes has big personal and team goals left to accomplish.
“I want to win league, maybe get MVP,” Dukes said. “Next year I have a shot at breaking the school record for career points, which is around 1,500. The record belongs to our assistant coach Ben Peterson so that would be cool.”
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
