Hillcrest point guard Jordan Allen doesn’t need motivation to have the perfect senior year he wants.
He’s got his focus on two things: a state championship and finishing as a Mr. Basketball winner after being named a finalist last season.
“It hasn’t happened yet, but if me and my team, my coaches, if we can stick together through the ride, that will probably be the best moment of my life,” Allen said of wanting to win the school’s first basketball title. “Also Mr. Basketball too, that will be in the same week.”
This season, Allen, who committed to Holmes Community College in January, is averaging 36 points per game 6.2 assists and six steals with Hillcrest. He has set career highs in points (50), assists (13) and steals (11) this season.
In his career, he’s closing in on 1,600 points and has over 300 assists and 300 steals.
Yet, he still feels like he has something to prove.
“Winning a state championship would do it for me,” Allen said. “I feel like that would be the biggest thing that would happen.”
Hillcrest coach Chris Adams remembers when he realized his senior point guard was going to have a special senior year.
With the game on the line against Kirby earlier this year, Adams was about to draw up a play in a timeout.
Before Adams could finish the play, Allen told him to just get him the ball, he was going to make a play.
Allen did just that hitting a three-pointer to help the Vikings secure an 89-85 November win.. That game made Adams realize Allen was truly locked in this season. And it backed up a statement Allen told his coach this summer.
“He told me before the summer, ‘I’m on something different this year,’” Adams recalled Allen telling him ahead of the season.
This year, Allen is proving just why he should be a Mr. Basketball finalist for the second straight year, albeit this year in Class 1A after Hillcrest dropped in classification prior to the school year. He was a Class 2A finalist for the award for the 2022-23 award as a junior.
Allen is determined to be the first player in Hillcrest basketball history to win the award.
“I feel like Mr. Basketball, winning it this season, would put a big stamp on the senior season that I had,” Allen said. “It would be a big accomplishment.”
As talented as Allen has been the last two seasons at Hillcrest (17-5), he wasn’t always the top scoring point guard he is now. In fact, he couldn’t have imagined the success he’s had in high school basketball.
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“I want to make sure I leave with a great reputation for myself on and off the court,” Allen said. “I feel like the high school career I had, not too many people had the career I had and I have to make the best of it.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at [email protected] and on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @wynstonw__.