C-L’s Deion Deas Scores 1,000 Point After Being Declared Out for the Season

| February 17, 2019


CLARION, Pa. (D9Sports) – Just over a week ago, it looked like Deion Deas’ junior season was over with an ankle injury.

But not only did Deas dress and play and score 16 points while grabbing seven rebounds in Clarion-Limestone’s 57-52 KSAC Championship Game win over Keystone Saturday night at Clarion High School, he scored his 1,000th career point in the process.

“It means a lot,” Deas said. “It’s a milestone.”

Deas, the Lions leading scorer at 21.6 ppg coming into Saturday, hurt his ankle during the Lions win at North Clarion February 1 but played the next two games – at Keystone and at Venango Catholic – scoring 32 total points. But following the win over Venango Catholic February 6, an examination of Deas’ ankle found it to have a fracture, and he was ruled out for the season with his dad, Joe, even posting on Facebook that it was six- to eight-week recovery time.

But with his ankle feeling better, Deas sought a second opinion and was cleared to resume practicing Friday.

“The diagnosis wasn’t necessarily wrong,” C-L head coach Joe Ferguson said during a pregame interview. “He does have a broken foot that he did in the North Clarion game. He played for a couple of games after that. Where the break is at, it is one of those things they feel they can tape up tight enough and his foot hasn’t been hurting for a few days. So they went and got it checked again, and he got his clearance. He was at practice Friday for the first time.”

Deas said the past 10 days have been a rollercoaster of emotions.

“A lot of things have gone through my mind,” Deas said. “When I first heard I couldn’t play for the rest of the season, it hurt me. But, then, I tried to fight back. I really saw in the couple of games I was out I wanted to back in there bad. My ankle felt good, so I decided to go to the doctors to get cleared up. When I heard I got cleared up, I was full of excitement.”

Coming into the game Saturday, Deas needed seven points to reach 1,000 for his career, but he said he was more worried about winning the KSAC Title, the Lions second straight and fifth in the past six years.

“I was more focused on winning this even if I didn’t get my 1,000,” Deas said. “I try to do everything it takes for the team to win no matter if I score one or zero points. It’s just whatever I can do to make the team win.”

Deas didn’t seem hampered by the ankle at all, and came out of the gates hot scoring four points in the first quarter and then adding a bucket a minute-and-a-half into the second quarter to put him one point away from becoming the 13th player in C-L school history to reach 1,000 career points in boys’ basketball.

The milestone then occurred off an offensive rebound of a missed 3-pointer by Julian Laugand with Deas grabbing the rebound on the left side and putting in a floater from just outside the key.

Watch Deas score his 1,000th career point.

With the 16-point night, Deas finished with 1,009 career points.


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