Wallden's 1,000 point plateau highlights rough week for East
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Brian Wallden became the fifth boys basketball player at Williamsville East to score over 1,000 point in a career.

Brian Wallden put himself into some elite company at Lancaster last Friday.

The Williamsville East senior hit two free throws with under 30 seconds remaining to go over 1,000 points for his career.

Wallden is fifth all-time at the school in scoring. The next closest player with over 1,000 points at East is Dave Wert (1,054).

"I knew I had a pretty good shot based on how I was scoring over the past few games," said Wallden. "It was pretty intense and stressful before I finally got it but it worked out well."

Wallden likes the accolades but is more concerned with how the team is playing. East lost to Lancaster, 66-57, and capped off a week which also saw them lose to Iroquois, 57-55.

"We're in a slump," said Wallden, who has started since his sophomore year. "Hopefully, we can get out of this and get back to the kind of teams we've had over the past few years."

"It's a good feat for someone who has only played varsity for three years," said East coach Dennis Belote. "He really works hard in practice."

Wallden will attend Penn State University in the fall but only play intramurals or at the club level for the Nittany Lions. He plans on majoring in some type of engineering.

Wallden finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks against Lancaster.

East's biggest problem against the Redskins, and versus other teams, has been holding onto a lead. The Flames led Lancaster, 18-17, after the first quarter, trailed 30-27, at halftime, and 44-40, after the third quarter.

East went up by four with four minutes to play but another Achilles heel of theirs, unnecessary turnovers, gave Lancaster back the lead. The Flames had 27 turnovers against the Redskins.

"We stepped out of bounds, traveled, and threw cross court passes out of bounds," said Belote. "We seem to turn the ball over more when we have the lead. We're not making the right passes at the right time. I'm kind of baffled why we turn over the ball so much."

Peter Heim added 12 points against Lancaster. Chris Schiumo had nine points and five assists.

East had almost as many turnovers against Iroquois, committing 25.

Trailing 28-26 at halftime, East battled back to take a 47-44 advantage after the third quarter. Belote said Iroquois took the lead back with 30 seconds to play in the game but threw the ball away and had to foul.

Wallden, tripled teamed all night, had 15 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks. Heim led all scorers with 21.

East limited its turnovers to 14 and it resulted in a 79-66 win last Thursday over West Seneca East. The Flames trailed, 21-14, after the first quarter and, 36-34, at halftime before taking a 57-47 advantage after the third quarter.

Wallden had 24 points, 20 rebounds, seven steals and five blocks. Schiumo poured in a career-high 20 points, including six threes. Mark Guenther added 11 points and seven rebounds.

East (8-5, 4-3) doesn't play until 7:30 p.m. on Monday at Sweet Home.