ATHOL — For Max Millette, scoring 1,000 points for the Frontier Regional boys basketball team wasn’t an individual accomplishment. He did it with his coach and teammates in-service of the ultimate goal of winning basketball games.
Millette reached the milestone in a 68-33 win over Athol on Monday night. In transition, Millette scored the points on a gliding lay up from the left side with Athol defenders in the vicinity. The basket came in the second quarter.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” Millette said. “I saw the hoop.”
At the beginning of the game, he was facilitating. Millete scored four points in the first quarter needing eight to reach 1,000.
“As you saw tonight, he doesn’t force anything,” Frontier coach Josh Morse said. “He’s a team guy. He’s a joy to coach. All Max Millette cares about is winning. That’s it. He gets his points in the flow of the offense. He definitely is a guy that has earned the right to score 1,000. His work ethic is unprecedented.”
Millette was quick to credit his coach for the accomplishment.
“Josh came in my freshman year,” Millette said. “He turned me into the player that I am. I couldn’t have done this without him.”
The talk in the locker room after the game was about the milestone being a team accomplishment. His teammates shared the enthusiasm for the accolade.
“It’s not an individual thing,” Morse said. “This is a team effort. He doesn’t get to 1,000 without everyone around him. That’s really the truth. Someone has to pass him the ball. We have five guys on the court with one ball. Everyone is smiling in there, it’s like they won the award.”
The noise from the Frontier locker after the game echoed throughout Mallet Gymnasium. There was a quick celebration near the bench after the basket during the game, and it was back to playing basketball for the Redhawks.
“I couldn’t have done this without any of them in there,” Millette said. “Or any of my teammates in the past. It’s five guys on a team. It takes five. I am really proud to have my name on that banner. I wanted to that since I was a little kid. But it is a team award. I think this brings us closer together.”
Millette finished with 12 points for the Redhawks. Frontier had four players in double-figures with Alex Ellis leading the way with 14 points. Alex Skroski and Dean Gray each added 10 points. Garrett Dredge added eight points for Frontier.
Back when Millette was a freshman, he scored his first varsity points at Mallet Gymnasium. The senior has come a long way since his first time scoring for the Redhawks.
“I had flashbacks,” Millette said. “It was a close one, it ended in overtime. But the crowd was the same. The energy was the same. It’s honestly pretty crazy when I thought about it. I’d love to do it at home, but this is pretty great too.”
Frontier (2-1, 1-0 Hampshire North) held a lead the entire game against the Bears (0-1, 0-1 Hampshire North). Karim Thompson led Athol with 14 points.
“We got to be better with the basketball,” Athol coach Brian Patria said. “Too many turnovers. I thought our defense had the intensity, but we didn’t communicate.”
Frontier led 20-8 after the first quarter. Ethan Goodwin scored six points for the Bears. Goodwin threw down an effortless two-handed dunk in transition to make the score 15-6 in the first quarter.
The play got the Athol crowd a little rowdy. Carter Miller provided a silencer for the Redhawks late in the first quarter with a 3-pointer to make the score 20-8 going into the first break. Frontier built a 36-13 lead heading into halftime.