There it was, a wide-open look from the left side of the arc. His teammates, no more than three feet behind him, rose to their feet with arms raised in the air. He set his feet, squared up to the basket and passed the ball.
‘Everyone was yelling and stuff,’ said senior guard Paul Seymour. ‘I just wanted to play the game, it would’ve come eventually.’
What came eventually was point number 1,000 and a spot in Boston University basketball history. Sitting at 13 points with only a few minutes remaining, and needing 14 for the magical 1,000 point mark, one would think that a player would start forcing shots.
But not Paul Seymour.
As he squared up for the shot that never came, the crowd rose, the Terrier bench rose, and sophomore guard Chaz Carr definitely did not expect the ball in his hands. So as soon as Carr caught the surprise pass, he tossed it right back. Seymour would miss that three-pointer, but his time would come with 1:19 to go in the game.
‘Just in the end [were we trying to get him the ball],’ said BU coach Dennis Wolff. ‘We have two road games [coming up] and we had a nice crowd here tonight, the students were into it, it was nice that he was able to do it at home.’
Stuck at 999 and posting up in the lane with his back to the basket, Seymour was fouled by Stony Brook University guard Bob Santiago. With the crowd and Terrier bench on its feet, Seymour stepped to the line and calmly drained the first free throw.
‘I’m sure in 10 years I’ll look back on it and be very happy,’ Seymour said. ‘It’s a good moment in my college career, but I’m just glad we won the game.’
Averaging just over six points per game, and 14 points shy of the thousand-point mark coming into last night’s game, Seymour probably expected to wait a game or two. But with 8 points at halftime on three for three from the field and two for two from behind the three-point arc, there was no sign of the hot shooting hand dying down anytime soon.
With five more points in the first nine minutes of the second, the Terriers began feeding Seymour the ball. After the free throw, Seymour shyly walked over to the bench where he was photographed with Wolff and the game ball. Seemingly embarrassed by all the fuss and the standing ovation from the rather raucous student body in attendance, Seymour took a deep breath and swished the other free throw for point number 1,001. The shot made Seymour only the 24th player in BU history to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
‘I’m very very happy that he was able to do that here tonight,’ Wolff said. ‘Paul was [America East] rookie of the year in a year that we had a miserable season in the league. He played pretty well as a sophomore, struggled a good bit of last year, but is a kid that really has stayed with it, and he has played very good basketball of late.’
Sitting at 1,001, the modest Seymour is more than happy to get the pressure off his back and go back to the goal at hand.
‘Our goal is to go 16-0 in the league,’ Seymour said.
Sixteen might be the magic number for the Terriers this season, but on this night that number was just a little bit higher 984 higher, to be exact.