THE FINAL SECONDS of Bedford’s game against Salem in the Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament were ticking down, and a handful of Salem fans continued to heckle Bedford’s Luke Soden.
Soden, a senior guard, was a point shy of reaching 1,000 points for his high school career, and if he was going to get there during Wednesday’s tournament game against the Blue Devils he was running out of time. The heckling picked up steam in the Salem fan section when Soden missed a free throw with 3:48 to play, but all you could hear were Bedford fans after he sank two free throws with 11.9 seconds remaining in Bedford’s 82-81 victory.
“Yeah, I heard stuff from the stands about getting 1,000 points,” Soden said. “It feels amazing. I’ve dreamed about this for a long time. It’s one of my personal goals, so this is pretty big for me.
“Obviously it’s a close game so you have to focus more on the game and worry about winning the tournament, but at the same time you have to worry about scoring points. So going into the game I just thought, ‘Play my game. Do what I can. I’m going to get it some time during this tournament, so whenever it is, don’t worry about it.’”
Soden has been a starter for the Bulldogs since the fourth game of his sophomore season, and was a big part of Bedford’s run to the NHIAA Division I championship last season. He scored a game-high 26 points in Bedford’s 66-56 victory over Pinkerton in the Division I final.
Soden’s effort helped Bedford overcome a record-setting shooting performance by Salem, which made 14 3-pointers in the loss. It broke the former QCIBT record of 11 3-pointers shared by Keene (1993), Trinity (2008) and Dover (2009).
As a wide receiver/defensive back, Soden also helped Bedford win the Division I football championship in November.
“He’s just such a pure scorer from all three levels,” Bedford coach Frank Moreno said. “His 3-point shot hasn’t been great this year, but you saw glimpses of it (against Salem) when he hit a few. He’s got a nice mid-range jumper, he gets to the rim. He sees the floor so well. He’s a tough matchup for anyone.”
Soden entered Wednesday’s game needing 27 points to reach 1,000, and he finished with 28.
“It’s obviously an exciting moment, but at the same time we want to win this Christmas tournament,” Soden said. “It’s good to get it out of the way, and now just focus on basketball and winning games.”
Soden wasn’t the only Bedford player to record 1,000 career points Wednesday. Senior center/forward Lana McCarthy tossed in a game-high 21 points, including point No. 1,000, to help the Bedford girls defeat Providence’s LaSalle Academy 64-31 in the Londonderry Holiday Tournament. McCarthy, who has committed to play at Purdue, made 10 field goals and one free throw.
The Central boys lost three of their first four Division I games this season, but few NHIAA teams can match the Little Green’s depth. That depth was on display during a 69-53 opening-round victory over West in the QCIBT. Twelve Central players scored in the win.
“We have an extremely deep team,” Central coach Sudi Lett said. “I have yet to see a game where we’re firing on all cylinders, but we’re heavy on seniors and juniors and I think that maturity will pay off. I think we have a really good team, a really deep team.”
Lett said he expects to use at least 10 players in most games this season.
“I’ve been trying to take some coaching cues from some of the guys I respect,” he said. “They say, ‘If you want to win, you have to play the good players longer than the other team.’ So I’m trying to do a little bit more of that, but we play so hard that we need a big rotation.”
