Area Distributors Area Player of the Week: Southeastern’s Danny Stephens
BEARDSTOWN, Ill. — The number of 50-point games fashioned by an area boys basketball player can be counted on both hands. Southeastern’s Danny Stephens moved the number closer to having to go to the toes to keep track.
In the championship game of the sixth Beardstown Tiger Classic, the 6-foot-7 Stephens scored 52 points in powering the Suns to a 72-65 victory over Winchester West Central in last Saturday’s championship game. The future University of Missouri forward opened the tournament with a 33-point effort against Brown County and led Southeastern to a 4-0 record in the season’s opening week.
Stephens, to no surprise, was named the tournament MVP.
His career-high scoring effort is just the third 50-point game by an area basketball player in the past two decades. Austin Richmiller set the Highland single-game scoring record with 51 points against Louisiana in 2015. Dezi Jones broke the Hannibal single-game record with 50 points against Marshall in 2019.
It is believed, through archival research, to be the ninth 50-point game in area history.
For his efforts, Stephens is this week’s Area Distributors Area Player of the Week.
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