Plymouth's Turson: Family ties that bind

The St. Paul Convocation Center was a fitting scene for Plymouth head coach Brad Turson to be a part of family and school history.

Before his team's 59-57 victory against the Flyers on the road that saw the winning points scored with 1.1 seconds left, Turson's Plymouth team had won just four times in 13 tries at the venue since it opened in 1995.

However, it was during that game that the Turson family became the unofficial bookends of Plymouth basketball history. Brad entered the season, his 16th, as the all-time wins leader at the school while oldest son Graig was second all-time and middle son Brett was third.

That all changed slightly for the better last Friday as the youngest Turson took his place atop the all-time leading scorers list for the Big Red after scoring 32 points in the win over the Flyers. Brook, a 6-foot-3 guard, needed 18 points entering the contest to pass Steve Hall, who scored 1,298 points from 1984 to 1987, for the top spot.

Entering the year with 902 points, Turson passed six players for the top spot and has scored 411 points in 18 games this season and currently has 1,313 points with another two regular season games left in his junior season.

While never one to gloat about personal family accolades, Brad Turson was able to talk about not only the close victory against St. Paul, but also about his family's place in Plymouth history.

"It is special to me," he said. "I also went to school here, and we always wanted to come back to Plymouth and build a quality program. I'm not only proud of what my sons have accomplished here, but I'm proud of every player that has come through the program."

Turson felt a love of the sport propelled all three of his sons to the 1,000-point club.

"My sons worked hard for what they got and they really just loved the game of basketball," he said. "But again, that goes for everyone else also. Every player involved in this program has played a key role. We've certainly had a lot of fun over the years getting the program to this point and we want to continue to do that."

Brook was also quick to recognize not only the accomplishments of Hall, but that he had a tougher road to his point total than he did.

"It's a nice accomplishment obviously, but especially because Steve Hall was such a great player," Brook said. "And I think he did it for three years without the 3-point line. I was able to break his record, but I did it a little different because I had the 3-point line. But this is also a team award, just like the 1,000 points earlier this year. I couldn't do it without my teammates, they are a great group of guys."

Brook said the back-and-forth tight game and heart-stopping win against the Flyers was one the Big Red badly needed to happen, especially on the road. Entering the game Plymouth had 13 of 14 straight wins by 12 or more points.

"I was thinking to myself for a couple weeks that we really, really needed to be pushed and tested like that," Brook said. "To come in here to the convocation center against a quality team in St. Paul and a tough environment and win a game like that is huge. It can only help us for the tournament."

Even with the Firelands Conference outright title sewn up a couple of weeks ago and the back-to-earth tight game with the Flyers, Brook Turson indicated there is still much to be done for the 17-1 Big Red, ranked No. 10 in Division IV in the state, in the final game of the season.

"We want to go undefeated in the conference and it was one of our main goals from day one," he said. "Only a couple of teams have done it I think and we can also finish with the school record for wins in a season, which we set last year, before the tournament even begins so that would be real nice and we're looking forward to the tournament."

Meanwhile, the eldest Turson knows while neither team may be looking ahead, both St. Paul and Plymouth are in the lower half of their respective sectional brackets, meaning a third rematch is possible ... for a Division IV district championship, the second time the two would possibly meet with regionals on the line.

"I don't think we'll look ahead but we know the possibility is there," Brad Turson said. "But if that were to happen, I think both Mike (Smith) and I would be very happy because one it would be the district championship, and two it would be two Firelands Conference teams playing for a regional berth. And if it were to happen, it will probably be a lot like this last one was."