EDITOR'S NOTE: The Swnews4u.com Athlete of the Week is a web-only feature that will publish each Thursday throughout the calendar year.
By Jason Nihles, The Platteville Journal / Boscobel Dial / Fennimore Times
Camryn Nies, Sr., G, Platteville girls basketball
STOUGHTON — Senior point guard Camryn Nies scored a game-high 19 points to lead Platteville to a 59–47 non-conference victory at Stoughton Thursday night and in the process joined the elite 1,000-point club.
With a putback of her own miss, surrounded by three defenders on the right block, Nies became just the fifth Platteville girl to surpass 1,000-career points with 4:55 left in the first half.
A timeout was called and Nies was surrounded and congratulated first by teammates Alyssa Blevins, Hailey Weigel, Ellie Temperly and Maddison Carl on the court and later the entire team on the Platteville bench.
“A timeout was called for our team to acknowledge the accomplishment but then it was back to business,” said Platteville head coach Brandon Temperly. “We will celebrate this wonderful accomplishment at our next home game on Jan. 13 against River Valley. Camryn works very hard at her craft and we are incredibly proud of her for accomplishing this goal. To be one of five all-time scorers is pretty special.”
Nies joined Platteville all-time leading scorer Sami Martin (1,591 points), a 2020 PHS graduate, 1993 graduate Nicki Taggart (1,381), 2001 graduate Kimberly Becker, and older sister Josie Nies (1,100), a 2020 graduate.
Martin, who initially played at Division 1 Bradley University out of high school, is currently the leading scorer and rebounder for Loras (10–2). Taggart, now Nikki Collen, played D1 first at Purdue and later Marquette and is currently the head women’s basketball coach at D1 Baylor University. Becker went on to play at Division 1 UW–Milwaukee and Josie Nies is currently the starting point guard at UW–Stevens Point (see story in left side bar).
The younger Nies has committed to play next year at UW–Whitewater and could face older sister Josie, when the Warhawks meet the Pointers twice next season.
Nies’ 1,000th point basket gave the Hillmen a 17–12 lead and Platteville closed the half on an 8–5 run to take a 25–17 lead in the intermission.
Nies drilled a 3-pointer from the left win to give Platteville a 35–26 lead five minutes into the second half. Fellow senior Lizzie Poller made a triple of her own from the left wing to make it 43–30 three minutes later.
Stoughton (4–7) got as close at nine at 50–41 on a free throw with five minutes left, but Platteville scored the next nine points — capped by a Weigel leyup — to put the game out of reach at 59–41 with less than two minutes to play.
Nies finished with a game-high 19 points, six assists, two rebounds and two steals. Poller added 13 points on a tough 4 for 22 shooting night, and Carl finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
HONORABLE MENTION (in alphabetical order):
Brady Larson, Sr., G, Fennimore boys basketball
DODGEVILLE — Senior Brady Larson joined Fennimore’s 1,000-point club with a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 12:30 mark of the first half in last Wednesday's 60–51 loss to Wilmot at the Dodgeville Holiday Classic. He entered the game with 995 career points.
He becomes the eighth Fennimore boy in the 1,000 point club, joining older brothers Adam Larson (2017–21) with 1,736 points, Reid Larson (2015–19) 1,640 points, as well as uncle Kevin Larson (1987–89) 1,547, Kevin Carp (1994–98) 1,383, Kellen Kenney (2016–20) 1,241, Jim Rosemeyer (1981–85) 1,236 and Dave Rosemeyer (1979–83) 1,123.
“Anytime you make an accomplishment like 1,000 points for a career it a good thing,” said Fennimore head coach and Brady’s father Troy Larson. “A lot of good players have come through Fennimore and point totals don’t mean anyone is better than another, but 1,000 points in a career mark high school basketball players shoot for. And Brady did it while also being a distributor for us for the last four years.”
Larson, while surpassing the 1,000-point mark, and Fennimore played a strong first half and led 32–24 at the break. The Eagles extended their lead to 17 points at 47–30, but Brady Larson fouled out with 12 minutes left after two quick fouls, and the Eagles wilted without him, being outscored 30–4 the rest of the way.
Larson also finished with 18 points on 7 of 20 shooting, to go along with four assists, two rebounds and two steals in a 69–45 loss to Baraboo in last Tuesday's first day of the Dodgeville tournament.
