XENIA — Having recorded nearly half of his field goal points from behind the three-point line, it was only fitting how Jonathan Riddle achieved a scoring milestone.
The Legacy Christian Academy senior drained a three-pointer on an inbound play against The Miami Valley School Feb. 12 to score his 1,000th career point and join an elite list of prolific Legacy/Xenia Christian scorers.
The second-quarter shot gave him 1o for the game and secured a spot on the gymnasium wall where the names of other 1,000-point boys — Brad Bresson; Chad Bresson; Daniel Litchy; Tyler Kettering; Daniel McNeely; Jordan Freemen; Ashton Burke; and Eric Uszynski — are celebrated.
“It was a good way for it to happen,” Riddle said. “A lot of my points this year have been threes.”
He finished with 22 points in a 51-36 victory over the Rams, a triumph that assured the Knights a Metro Buckeye Conference title. So in addition to the individual achievement, Riddle had a chance to cut down a net and whoop it up with his teammates including brother Andrew.
That was the highlight.
“I wasn’t necessarily worried about (1,000 points),” Riddle said. “It was going to eventually happen. The championship honestly was the first thing on my mind.”
Who Riddle was able to celebrate with was also likely high on the list. His sisters, Katie and Emily were 1,000-point scorers for the girls team and also have their spot on the suddenly Riddle-dominated wall. Katie came in from out of town as a surprise.
“That was real neat for her to see it,” Riddle said. “That’s really one of the biggest things I was most proud of, was just joining those two on the wall. It was something I always wanted to do. I’m glad both of them were there to see it.”
He was also happy that the bleachers were at COVID capacity.
“I was thankful a little bit more people could come in, just because it was the last home game I’ll ever have at that gym,” Riddle said.
He sits at 447 points this season heading into the Division-IV sectional tournament — 174 points behind the line and 206 from other field goal range. Riddle’s ability to score from all over has drawn comparisons to former player Tyler Kettering, who played in the early 2000s and is considered one of the school’s best-ever athletes.
“(Jonathan is) right up there,” Coach Mark Erwin said. “He’s pretty special. He really is. Pretty much all facets of the game. He’s a very good scorer. He’s as natural a kid as I’ve ever seen.”
Erwin said Riddle is “very difficult” to guard because of his height (around 6 feet, 4 inches) and release.
“He gets that shot off so quick,” Erwin said. “You can try what you want to to try and guard him. He’s going to get his shots off.”
And as Riddle has already shown, a lot of them are going to go in.
