LaMOILLE – LaMoille senior Brayden Klein came into the 2024-25 basketball season knowing he was 403 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point career milestone.

Klein added to his numbers through the season trying to reach the feat. With three games left in the regular season, Klein scored his 1,000^th point against IMSA on Friday, Feb. 14.

“It feels great. Some kids dream of playing basketball since they’re little, and it’s great to have an experience like this in my high school career,” Klein said. “I didn’t originally set out to score 1,000 points, but after last year, I saw how close I was, and it motivated me to step up my game a notch.”

Klein is the ninth Lion to accomplish the milestone as he joins fellow senior Tyler Billhorn, who became the eighth LaMoille to do so earlier in the season.

“Tyler and I have been playing basketball together since fifth grade and we’ve played on the varsity team for all four years of our high school careers,” Klein said. “It’s a good feeling to see him reach his 1,000 career points and then for me to do it also.

“This senior class, we’ve been together since pre-school. Growing up and playing sports together, it’s a good feeling knowing who I was going to play with through the years. I didn’t have to worry about having different teammates. I knew who my team was.”

Klein will say he was able to reach 1,000 because he focused on his strength of getting to the hoop. He worked on different angles and the best ways to create separation for the easiest shots possible.

LaMoille coach Chance Blumhorst agrees with Klein, then quickly points out his work ethic.

“It’s hard to imagine any school having tow 1,000-point career scores on the same school, let alone a school the size of LaMoille,” said Blumhorst, whose team finished the season 7-25. “It just goes to show, we had two guys who reached this milestone, and they’re the two guys on the team who have missed the least amount of team things since I took over the program three years ago.

“I had Brayden on a travel team when he was in eighth grade, and I told him to stick with it. We knew he could score. I used to run 8 a.m. Friday workouts. We only had nine guys on the team and I kind of spaced the workouts out, so I didn’t think anyone was going to come.

“Brayden was working (mowing yards, McDonald’s, and other jobs) and was still at every single 8 a.m. Friday workouts. I think he was the only player to be in the gym for three of those four Fridays. He shows up for everything.”