By Al Muskewitz, East Alabama Sports Today
WHITE PLAINS – Piedmont’s Alex Odam scored 41 points from everywhere on the floor to become the 14th player in Alabama high school history to score 3,000 career points, but it took a layup from under the basket at the overtime buzzer to make the night even more memorable.
On a night when Odam joined an elite club, Chance Murphy took a pass from the guard under the basket with less than a second to play in overtime and laid it in right before the horn to give the Bulldogs a 66-64 win over host White Plains.
With the 41 points Odam now has 3,025 for his career to place 14th on the AHSAA all-time scoring list, just nine points behind the next player on the ladder, ASD’s Deon Harris.
“It’s pretty special, obviously the best one yet,” Odam said. “How few people have ever done it has just made it a little better than rest of them, especially on a night like tonight. The way everything played out was kind of perfect.”
The senior Jacksonville State signee needed 16 points to reach the milestone and got it on a mid-range fadeaway jumper 23 seconds into the third quarter. The game was stopped at that point to recognize the feat, with White Plains coach Chris Randall presenting Odam with the game ball.
“I was messing with him and told him I wasn’t taking it if had the White Plains logo on it,” Odam said. “He made sure he wrote a white WP on it before he gave it to me. It was a pretty cool moment.”
He scored his 1,000th point as a freshman in a win over Pleasant Valley in January 2020 and his 2,000th point as a junior in a loss to Saks in December 2021“(Getting the win) made it a lot better,” Odam said. “I think it would have been pretty sweet to get it tonight, but it would have been nothing like it was if we would have ended up losing that game. The way it ended made it a whole lot better.”
The Wildcats came close to spoiling it. Josh Wheeler had two shots at the end of regulation that could have given White Plains the win.
As it was, the teams went to overtime to settle the issue. The game-winning play was one the Bulldogs had run unsuccessfully twice before in Odam’s career, once at White Plains and once against Hanceville at Jacksonville State, but this time it couldn’t have worked better.
The teams were looking at a second overtime when they got the ball under their goal with four seconds left. They got the ball to Ish Bethel at midcourt, Bethel got it to Odam and as the Wildcats’ defense crashed on the Bulldogs’ star, he found Murphy under the goal and the junior forward laid it in just before the buzzer sounded.
“It’ll probably the last time we run it,” Odam said. “Everybody’s seen it now.”
Murphy was the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer in the game with seven points.
Luke Bussey, a former Piedmont player, hit six 3-pointers and led White Plains with 24 points. Carter Johnson had 15 points, including two big three-point plays in overtime.