After making a free throw late in the second half of the 67-56 win over Elk Mound at home, Prescott junior Dallas Wallin officially joined the career 1,000-point club. Wallin is the seventh player in program history to accomplish the rare high school feat.

Wallin is only the second player in Prescott history to cross the 1,000-point threshold as a junior, joining now-senior teammate Jordan Malmlov who was the first to do it during his junior campaign last year. Longtime Prescott head coach Nick Johnson has overseen all seven of the student-athletes that have reached 1,000 points. He spoke about Wallin joining elite company.

“It’s incredible that he and Jordan did it as juniors,” Johnson said. “Dallas is a phenomenal player; we think he’s a scholarship player. He got it on a free throw and we called a timeout to give him a standing ovation. He deserves it and it was an awesome moment for him.”

Wallin scoring his 1,000th career point against Elk Mound was anything but a certainty. He went into the home game on Saturday, Jan. 28, needed 27 points to hit 1,000 and he scored 28. Wallin put his full range of talents on display against a talented Elk Mound team that went into the game with an 11-3 record.

Throughout both halves, Wallin put on a show. He buried jumpers, made a dunk in transition and even finished a couple of alley-oop passes at the rim for flashy layups. Wallin finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals in the victory.

Perhaps it’s a testament to how great Wallin is – and could be moving forward – to know that he will be remembered as one of the greatest scorers in program history, yet might actually be a better defender and passer than anything else. Coach Johnson spoke about Wallin’s well-rounded game.

“We’ve told him since his freshman year that he could be one of the greatest because he’s so good on both ends of the floor,” Johnson said. “He’s always guarding the other team’s best player and he’s a phenomenal passer – a very unselfish player. He just does it all. We’re very fortunate that he’s on our squad.”

As great of a player as Wallin has become, Johnson continues to push him to get even better because he knows that Wallin can take his game to an even higher level, perhaps higher than any player in program history. Johnson spoke about what Wallin is capable of achieving.

“I still think there’s a bar that he can get to,” Johnson said. “He’s got so much potential to be an even better player and that says a lot about when he’s a junior and just scored 1,000 and we still want more out of him. We know his ceiling and that’s what we’re always trying to push him to get to.”

While Wallin’s 1,000-point celebration was certainly the highlight of the night, the win over a tough Elk Mound team was also a nice feather in Prescott’s cap. Of Elk Mound’s three losses entering the game, two were against No. 2-ranked West Salem and a Fall Creek squad that is currently 13-2.

Prescott got down in the early goings of the first half, but rallied in the middling portion of the frame and eventually took a 32-31 lead into the halftime intermission. The Cardinals outscored the Mounders 35-25 in the second half to secure the 67-56 victory. Coach Johnson spoke about picking up the important non-conference win.

“They’re very good and we knew coming in they were very good,” Johnson said. “That’s a big win for us. I think they’d be a top-three team in our conference, they’re that solid.”

On a night when Wallin was the team’s primary offensive force and the aforementioned Malmlov struggled to shoot it from beyond the arc, Prescott senior forward Brandon Stuart stepped up as the second-leading scorer.

Stuart finished with 16 points on 8-12 shooting from the floor. He also tallied eight rebounds, four assists and a steal in the victory. He provided an important interior presence that helped the Cardinals break down Elk Mound’s 1-3-1 zone.

With the win, Prescott moved to 14-3 overall and improved its win streak to four games. Coach Johnson spoke about how Stuart has been a catalyst for the four-game heater over the last eight days.

“He’s so important for our team’s success because he’s our third option and he has struggled a bit from the outside, but he’s adapted his game to be a post guy and he has been very good,” Johnson said. “This four-game winning streak, you can credit him with a lot of it. Not just scoring, but defensively, rebounding, being active, he gives us a lot of options and we need him going forward.”

Prescott’s two career 1,000-point scorers in Wallin and Malmlov were back in action at home against Altoona on Tuesday, Jan. 31. That game was slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Prescott junior forward Dallas Wallin looks for an open teammate during a game earlier this year against Racine St. Catherine’s at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. Photo by Reagan Hover-