Oakville boys basketball coach Franklin Johnson knew at halftime against Cornerstone Christian Academy on Friday, Dec. 19 that a school record could be broken that night.
Acorns senior guard Giovanni Rodas already had 29 points on the scoreboard, three more than he had ever scored in a full game. Johnson and the coaching staff had their eyes on Eddie Klatush’s school record of 51 points, set against North River on Jan. 18, 2022.
After all, they knew the skillset and talent that Rodas possessed. All season, they had been telling Rodas that he needed to put up 15 to 20 shot attempts per night for the Acorns to be successful.
In the locker room at halftime, Johnson told Rodas to be selfish and essentially asked his teammates to be selfish on behalf of Rodas to help him break the record.
“He had 21 in the first quarter, and I looked at my assistant coaches and said, ‘Should we let him go for a record? Or should we do our normal rotations and get him some breaks?” Johnson said. “Both of my assistants said, ‘100%. Let’s go for a record.’ The coolest thing about the whole situation was at halftime. I told my team that Gio has a chance to create a legacy here and do something really cool. His teammates all said, ‘Let’s do it.’ They were just handing him the ball, giving him shots and doing everything they could to help him achieve that record.”
The collective effort worked, as Rodas finished with a school-record 57 points in an 87-34 rout of Cornerstone Christian Academy. Most of Rodas’ work came inside the lane and at the free-throw line as he made four 3-pointers.
“It was more of a driving lane for me. I got two quick buckets off of two good passes from my teammates, and then I caught a 3 and started getting hot,” Rodas said.
After the halftime game plan to virtually give Rodas the ball and get out of the way, Rodas didn’t feel much pressure with the school record in sight. He took what the defense gave him, which was frequent driving lanes to the basket as Cornerstone Christian Academy struggled to close gaps in its zone defense.
“I was in a calm moment because I didn’t want to pressure myself and miss those shots. I kept it calm and then did what I was supposed to do,” Rodas said.
In the fourth quarter, with the game well in hand for Oakville, Rodas reached 50 points but missed a couple of layups that would have broken Klatush’s record. Johnson and his coaching staff were “on the fence” about leaving him in, but they opted to give him one more shot.
Rodas pulled up from the free-throw line and sank a jump shot to give him the school record.
“It was a shocking feeling. I was in disbelief. No one had ever done it besides Eddie Klatush, and I’m the next person to do it,” Rodas said.
Rodas’ teammates threw water on him to celebrate the historic moment. Rodas said that while the collaborative effort was to get him the school record, the record belongs to the team, not just himself.
“It meant everything that they wanted to help me achieve not only my goal but the school’s goal. It wasn’t a selfish thing,” Rodas said. “They all wanted to buy into what was there in the moment. They did it for me, and I really appreciate them for that.”
Johnson hopes the 57-point outburst can help boost Rodas’ confidence as the games grow more important for Oakville down the stretch. He has already seen a difference in his senior leader in the practices following the record-breaking night.
“In this game, I think everything fell into place. It’s going to continue to fall in place the remainder of the season,” Johnson said. “We were at practice today and he was jumping and dunking all over the place. I think he’s really crossed the point with his own confidence, and his teammates have bought into the fact that, ‘This is our leader. This is the guy that we need to follow.’”
