PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Maureece Rice\u2019s mother didn\u2019t want her son to break Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s Philadelphia high school career scoring record Friday.
\n\u201cI had bigger plans,\u201d Debra Rice said. \u201cI wanted him to wait another day so I could have a cake and all.\u201d
\nThe cake can wait. The record wouldn\u2019t.
\nRice, who needed 42 points going into a game against Olney to break a record that has stood since 1955, scored a season-high 44. Rice\u2019s Strawberry Mansion team beat host Olney 76-59 and Rice exited the gym with 2,209 career points, three more than Chamberlain scored in a three-year Overbrook High varsity career that ended in 1955.
\n\u201cThe record\u2019s been up there for over 40 years,\u201d said Rice, a four-year varsity starter. \u201cA lot of good players have come through the Public League and didn\u2019t break it. It feels great.\u201d
\nThe 6-foot guard broke the record on a 3-pointer \u2014 a shot that didn\u2019t exist when Chamberlain played \u2014 from the left of the key with 1:52 left in the game.
\nTeammates, fans and family mobbed the court. Rice\u2019s father, Curtis Toomer, returned to the stands cradling the basketball.
\n\u201cWhen we left the house today, I said maybe we should wait until we had more family members around,\u201d Toomer said. \u201cHe said, \u2019No, way. I\u2019m going to do it today.\u201d\u2019
\nRice did it by scoring from the inside early and from the outside late. He had nine points after one quarter on three putbacks, a layup and a foul shot. He found his outside shooting stroke in the second quarter and had 21 points at the half.
\nThe 18-year-old Strawberry Mansion senior, who was averaging 24.3 points this season going into the contest, erupted for 14 points in the third period. At that point, everyone in the Olney gym \u2014 including Rice \u2014 knew history was in the making.
\n\u201cI was still playing my game,\u201d Rice said. \u201cBut I hit a couple 3-pointers in the third quarter. I knew I was getting closer and closer.\u201d
\nRice hit one of two free throws with 6:52 left. A reverse layup pulled him within a 3-point shot of Chamberlain. A 3-pointer with 2:21 left tied the record. Rice hit his sixth 3-pointer of the game seconds later to break it.
\nThe record is the latest highlight in Rice\u2019s high school career. As a freshman, he led Strawberry Mansion to its first Public League title in school history. He scored 32.1 points per game last year to lead the Knights to another league championship.
\nThe Knights are 8-3 this season, including an 85-47 defeat to St. Vincent-St. Mary High of Akron, Ohio, and its 6-8 phenom, LeBron James, last weekend. James outscored Rice 26 points to 13.
\nBut the Strawberry Mansion guard, who is being recruited by a number of Division I colleges, bounced back in record-breaking fashion Friday.
\n\u201cThe feeling\u2019s indescribable,\u201d Toomer said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad it\u2019s over for him. This takes the pressure off.\u201d
\nChamberlain, who died in 1999, went from Philly to Kansas and became one of the greatest centers in NBA history. He averaged 30.1 points in 14 seasons, won four MVP awards and played on two championship teams, with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers.
\nHe averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds during the 1961-62 season, and he scored a record 100 points against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. Chamberlain is third on the NBA\u2019s career scoring list with 31,419 points, behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Maureece Rice\u2019s mother didn\u2019t want her son to break Wilt Chamberlain\u2019s Philadelphia high school career scoring record Friday. \u201cI had bigger plans,\u201d Debra Rice said. \u201cI wanted him to wait another day so I could have a cake and all.\u201d The cake can wait. The record wouldn\u2019t. Rice, who needed 42 points […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}