Big scoring games are nothing new for Marysville senior Will Otott.
 
After all, as a junior a year ago, Otott carried scoring average of 22.4 points per game. This season through 13 games, the senior guard had upped that mark to 24.5 points per game.
 
Those kind of numbers simply don’t happen without a fair share of big games, this year’s output highlighted by a career-high 35-point outing two weeks ago against Hiawatha in the consolation semifinals of the Nemaha Central Thunder Classic.
 
So as Saturday’s game against Centralia played out, Otott had a pretty good idea he was having one of those career-high kind of nights.
 
“During the course of the game, I really had no idea,” Otott said. “But if you’d asked me after the game, I’d said I’d (scored) in the 30s, maybe 40.”
 
Otott was right. He had no idea.
 
Not only did he surpass his previous career high in the Bulldogs’ 82-78 overtime win over Centralia, he nearly doubled it. That’s right, nearly doubled it.
 
Otott not only had a career night, but turned in one of the highest scoring games in state history. The 6-foot-2 guard torched the Panthers for a jaw-dropping 64 points, becoming one of a select few in state history – eight to be exact -- to top 60 points in a single game.
 
Nortonville’s Larry Hobbs holds the state’s all-time single-game mark, scoring 69 in a game in 1966. Otott’s total is tied for third-most with Perry’s Art Carder, who scored 64 in 1953. Buhler’s John Buller had a 65-point game in 1921.
 
Teammates Harold Schmidt and Herb Proudfit scored 96 and 66 respectively for the Kansas City Bulldogs (now Wyandotte) in a 1923 game against the Rainbow Athletic Club. But those totals were not recognized by the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame as being state records, coming against a club team though that was a somewhat common occurrence in the early days of high school basketball in Kansas.
 
Challenging a state record never crossed Otott’s mind during the game.
 
“The way the game was going, that’s what we needed to win,” Otott said. “That was something I’ve never experienced before. Even as a little kid, 30 was like my max. Nothing like this.
 
“In the locker room with some of the managers there were whispers that I had 60. I was like, ‘No way, that’s not right!’ Then our assistant coach (David Hyde) came in with a big grin on his face and said, ‘You had 64.’ It was a surreal moment.”
 
Indeed, the nature of the game – a back and forth affair that saw Marysville rally from nine points down with just over a minute left in the fourth quarter to force overtime on a – yep – Otott 3-pointer at the buzzer – kept not only Otott but also Marysville head coach Scott Brown from truly knowing just how many points he had scored.
 
“We got in the locker room after the game and the whole team was so happy because we’d made a great comeback,” Brown said. “We were just talking about character of our guys and stuff like that and no one was really talking about it (Otott’s points). Then Coach Hyde checked his phone and someone had texted him and it said, ‘Will had 64.’ And we were like, ‘No way!’ We all thought he had a big game, but we were thinking in the 30s or something like that. But 64, no way.
 
“Then we got the book and looked at it and it was 64 and we were like, ‘Geez, that’s unreal.’ I texted a couple coaching friends of mine and they said, ‘Your kid had 64?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it was a quiet 64.’ And they were like, ‘What the heck is a quiet 64?’ But it really was. No way we thought he had that many and the great thing about it is he was in the locker room, not talking about himself and he won’t say a word about this at school. He’s never the guy to say ‘Oh I scored this many points or this many touchdowns’ or ‘Oh, I broke this record.’ He’s just not that type of guy.”
 
Otott scored 14 points in the first quarter, banking in a 3-point shot at the buzzer – a bucket that he admitted kind of gave him a notion that it was going to be his night. He added 8 in the second quarter and then poured in 18 in the third quarter to get to 40 points.
 
His 14-point fourth quarter included an and-one late that helped key Marysville’s furious rally in the final minute of regulation, one he capped with his game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer off a handoff near the top of the key. Otott then got his final field goal of the night early in the fourth before finishing off a 10-point overtime period with an 8-of-10 showing at the free throw line.
 
Otott’s final stat line looked like this: 11 of 20 on 2-point shots, 6 of 10 on 3-pointers and 24 of 31 at the free throw line.
 
“It was really trying to do whatever we needed to win,” Otott said. “I have teammates who are great shooters so it’s hard for an opposing team to sag off them at all and that gives me a chance to go do some stuff.
 
“Throughout the game the shot was feeling pretty good today. … I’m very confident in my ability to shoot from behind the arc and bring the defense out. But I also love scoring in the mid-range and post, using pivots, pump fakes and getting to the free throw line.”
 
Brown said that scoring nature hasn’t just come from Otott’s natural ability, but something he’s developed through hard work the past few years.
 
Otott was a sophomore starter on Marysville’s senior-laden team in 2022-23 that finished as Class 3A state runner-up. His role on that team was as point guard and though he wound up as the Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer at 8.4 points per game, he contributed more in other areas and was Marysville’s leader in rebounds, assists and steals.
 
When graduation claimed 10 seniors off that roster, Otott became the focal point of Marysville’s offense last year and flourished in that role as well while still leading the Bulldogs in rebounds, assists and steals.
 
“His shooting has come a long way,” Brown said. “As a freshman, he made three threes for the entire season and they were all in one game. Each year, he’s gotten better with his shooting. He’s a guy in the summer, he’s in the gym for workouts and then on other days he’d be at football workouts and when they were over he’d come back into the gym and get shots up on the gun.
 
“His scoring has really taken off and a big part of that is last year team’s put a lot of box-and-ones on us and even some triangle-and-twos where the two were both on Will. His teammates have done a good job of hitting open shots this year and that’s prevented teams from putting junk defenses on us and that’s opened Will up to going up against more half-court man defense and opened things up for him. He’s so smart and we always joke that he has a 45-year-old man’s game. He know how to get a guy off balanced with pass fakes, shot fakes and gets you in a compromising position.”
 
Though his teammates combined for just 18 points in the game, they all seemed to be big shots. All 18 came off 3-point make with Ty Moser hitting one in the fourth quarter that jump-started the final-minute rally. He made a pair of 3-pointers, as did Rhett Wertenberger, who had a game earlier this season when he hit 7 3-pointers.
 
Lost in Otott’s monster scoring night was something nearly as noteworthy. In grabbing 12 rebounds in the game, Otott became Marysville’s all-time leading rebounder. He now has 519 career rebounds, surpassing the previous record of 517 set by Paul Byers.
 
Otott also is Marysville’s all-time assists leader with 296, breaking Rob Olmsted’s career record of 257 earlier this season, and all-time leader in charges taken with 41, breaking former teammate Jack Lauer’s mark of 30.
 
Otott ranks No. 2 in Marysville history in scoring with 1,274 points, well behind Gabe Pieschl’s school record of 1,603 points. And he’s second in all-time steals with 195, holding an outside chance of reaching the record of 239 set by Kenny Kossow.
 
“I just can’t say enough about the kid,” Brown said. “He’s a 4.0 student, all-state football player and after today’s game, he’s in the whirlpool because he’s playing on a banged up knee. I considered sitting him the past couple games, but man, I’m glad I didn’t.”
 
After the same, Otott said he was kind of at a loss for words about what he had just accomplished, calling the moment “surreal.” 
 
“It’s an amazing feeling to know that I’m right up there with stuff that’s only been done once before,” he said. “I would have never thought I’d do that. It was big time because that game was back and forth. You never had a chance to think about what was going on. It was next play, next possession. I’m still on an adrenaline high from it.”
 
OTHER BOYS BASKETBALL STANDOUTS

• In closing in on becoming the first 1,000-point scorer in Iola history, Cortland Carson already has made history. With 18 points in the Mustangs’ 54-44 loss to Chanute on Friday, Carson became Iola’s career-leading scorer. The outing gave him 960 career points, breaking the old school record of 947 set by Shawn Williams from 1978-81.
• While Otott was erupting for his monster game, Centralia’s Quentin Alderfer put togher a career-high 31-point game in the Panthers’ overtime loss to Marysville. The previous night, Duke Timmel had 18 points and 12 rebounds in Centralia’s win over Onaga.
• Hiawatha had a big 2-0 week, starting it with a 47-46 win over previously undefeated Nemaha Central on Tuesday in Seneca. The Red Hawks followed with a 73-58 win over Riley County that saw sophomore Braylen Siebenmorgen explode for a career-high 27 points.
• Lansing got 24 points from Reece Mattingly as it knocked off rival Leavenworth 75-73 in overtime last Friday.
• Anderson County’s Noah Porter continued his double-double way, going for 28 points and 11 rebounds in a win over Girard.
• Northern Heights' Cooper Woodrow had 27 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks against Osage City.

 
GIRLS BASKETBALL STANDOUTS

• Sacred Heart sophomore Addi Lee went 7 for 7 from 3-point range and finished with 26 points to lead the Knights to their first win over Minneapolis in four years.
• Republic County won its first home game in four years, beating Lyons 45-41 last Friday. The Buffaloes had ended a 68-game losing streak earlier this season and won three road games before getting the long-awaited home victory. Kylie Stone had a career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds in the win and had averaged 10.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in her last three games. Avery Stindt has averaged 18.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists in the past three games and has moved with 26 points of 1,000 career points.
• Maur Hill has won eight straight and 10 of its last 11, picking up three wins last week over Riverside, Jefferson County North and Oskaloosa. Capri Koechner averaged 21.7 points, 13 rebounds and 4 steals per game in the three victories, including a 25-point performance against Riverside and double doubles against Jefferson North (20 points, 18 rebounds) and Oskaloosa (20 points, 12 rebounds, 6 steals).
• Manhattan senior Isabelle Peabody had a career-high 18 points in. 60-54 win over Topeka High last Wednesday, going 6 for 6 at the free throw line. In the Indians’ win over Emporia on Friday, Kat Ball had 9 steals, coming on the heels of a runner-upp finish in the free throw contest at the McPherson Mid-America Classic where she was an all-tournament team selection.
• Chase County’s Madelyn Wilson scored 21 points in three quarters of play and added 15 rebounds and nine steals, coming up one steal shy of a triple double in the Bulldogs’ 55-21 rout of Burlingame.