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Tuesday, 07 February 2012 23:22

Written by Mike White

It was a memorable night for Micah Mason. On senior night at Highlands High School, Mason helped the Rams earn a WPIAL playoff berth - and he set a WPIAL record.

Mason, a senior guard at Highlands, scored 28 points and broke the WPIAL record for career 3-pointers in a72-60 victory against Deer Lakes.

Mason (pictured) had five 3-pointers to give him 335 for his career, breaking the record set by Chartiers Valley's T.J. McConnell, who had 334 from 2006-10. Chartiers Valley's Mike Colbert is third.

"This was defiinitely a big deal," Mason said tonight. "I worked so hard and shot so many shots in my life. It's like it all paid off.

"T.J. was a great shooter and player, and I'm happy to beat him. It was hard, though. I feel like the pressure is off now."

Mason deserves a ton of credit for breaking this record - and for scoring more than 2,000 career points, because you should see how most teams defend him. Many play a box-and-one on him. When he starts to dribble, they will put another defender on him. Sometimes teams will send a third player after him.

For Mason to still average close to 30 points this year is on the remarkable side. Now here is something unbelievable I heard tonight from Mike Choma, who does Highlands games on the radio and also keeps statistics for the Rams. Choma told me he was talking to Mason's father, John, and Dad mentioned that in the summer between Micah's eighth- and ninth-grade years, he shot more than 40,000 shots. That's right, 40,000. They charted the shots that summer.

Micah Mason didn't get to this point without a lot of hard work.

Comments (14)

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written by t2pyah, February 07, 2012 - 10:30 PM

triple congrats to Mason

agree it is remarkable - watched Mason one time this season and opposing team almost always doubled him when he had the ball - and at times they doubled him away from the ball

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written by Joe D, February 07, 2012 - 11:05 PM

Congrats to mason...
especially after recovering from his illness.
Love this kid...
He get's it... put in the work and success will follow. Very supportive parents who did everything to help him succeed.
40,000 shots is 500 shots a day assuming 80 days. Probably takes about 2 hours max. He has that automatic returner and 1/2 court in his backyard!!!

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written by pittfan67, February 08, 2012 - 06:47 AM

Mason is a hard working player, he earned everything he got. Good luck to him in the playoffs and at Drake.

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written by Joe D, February 08, 2012 - 10:34 AM

Brentwood makes national news... but no coverage by PG??

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/pittsburgh-basketball-game-marred-horrible-racist-banana-suited-131740578.html

I remember a PG article about chants last year... it was funny... but this crossed the line.

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written by Ironman, February 08, 2012 - 11:28 AM

Every time I think of Brentwood, I have two words - Johnny Gammage. Here's the Trib's version.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/...80275.html

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written by Ironman, February 08, 2012 - 11:39 AM

Ultimate Warrior - Where are you? Can you give us any intel on section 1, particularly P.T.?

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written by a guest, February 08, 2012 - 01:23 PM

seems like Micah Mason has had a great High School career, but it does not even come close to TJ McConnell's. the accolades and domination TJ had in his high school career are one that has not been seen really at all for quite along time. personally, I think he will make it to the NBA because his court awareness, basketball knowledge, and other underrated tools (passing abilities, steals) are through the roof. and if you look at his current shooting percentage numbers at Duquesne, if he shot more his point totals would be rediculous and he would be one of the best point guards (if he isn't already now) in the COUNTRY. .535 field goal percentage,.508 3 pt percentage,.816 free throw percentage leads his team in every category. yet he never really is the leading scorer because he averages almost 6 assists per game and 3 steals a game

- 2010 Post-Gazette Male Athlete of the Year
- Post-Gazette Fabulous 5 his Junior and Senior year
- Fifth all time in WPIAL scoring
- 1,062 points HIS SENIOR YEAR ALONE (most points in a season in WPIAL HISTORY!!)
- A WPIAL championship in 2010 (and a runner him his freshman year in 2006) and state runner-up (losing to the #3 ranked team in the country)
- Was named first team Class 3A all-state as a senior, second team all-state as a junior and third team all-state as a sophomore
- 34.4 ppg. scoring average in regular season for his Senior Year
- Pennsylvania's 2009-10 Associated Press Class 3A state Player of the Year
- Lowest scoring game as a senior was 23 points!!
- NEVER LOST A HOME GAME IN HIS CAREER

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written by Unbelievable, February 08, 2012 - 01:33 PM

Thanks Tim McConnell (OOPS guest) for sharing your son's stats.

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written by pittfan67, February 08, 2012 - 02:00 PM

TJ was a great HS player and is an excellent college pg who has exceeded the expectations of many (myself included) with his career performance thus far at DuquesneU. I would say that anointing him an NBA pg would be very premature, but he has proven me wrong before and has developed physically and as a player much better than I ever would have thought. If nothing else, he will make a pretty penny in some European A or B league. The guest who posted is either a TJ groupie or his dad, but who really cares. TJ can play, so can Micah Mason. I will say that TJ's supporting cast in his 4 years in HS was significantly better than Mason's has been. Not taking anything away from Highlands' players because they play hard, but TJ had a lot more talent around him, even the season (I believe Mason was a frosh, TJ a jr) when Highlands beat CV in the WPIAL AAA playoffs.

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written by a guest, February 08, 2012 - 02:23 PM

Guest,

That's great you know all of TJ McConnell's accolades/stats, but this entry is about Micah Mason and deservedly so. McConnell got his time in the spotlight during a terrific career at CV and now at Duquesne, so maybe let Mason enjoy his. Give him some more credit, which he is worthy of, and recognize what he's accomplished, too.

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written by pensfan, February 08, 2012 - 02:39 PM

for everyone commenting, I am the person that posted as "guest" (for some reason my username did not sign in correctly and it had me posted as guest, oddly enough). but anyway, I actually graduated with TJ from chartiers valley and still a big CV basketball fan to this day so maybe thats why I am extremely biased on this topic (and by the way that loss to Highlands years back was a TOTAL HEARTBREAKER). the accolades I just got from his Duquesne page so not that big of a deal. sorry if I seemed a tad bit too imposing on my comment before. but I have seen Mason play and he's definitely a plus-plus shooter and has tons of talent. with all of the hard work and adversity he's gone through with the disease he suffered from, he will be a good college hoops player at Drake. and he's definitely gotten my praise before in previous other Varsity Blogs by MW. especially the fact that his supporting cast during his HS career was not like TJ's (like stated by pittfan67)and the unbelieveable 60 some point game he had last year was incredible . one thing is for sure, its great to see such shooting talent in Mason and McConnell in Western PA basketball over the past decade

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written by t2pyah, February 08, 2012 - 03:01 PM

must be the NA gym

I believe Char Valley went down two times in playoff games at NA -

Highlands over Char Valley

Blackhawk over Char Valley


Mason was a freshman; Sinclair was also on the Highlands team (Sinclair later a QB at Robt Morris)

TJ McConnell may have missed the Blackhawk game due to injury

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written by t2pyah, February 08, 2012 - 04:03 PM

btw - Mason more than just a (great) shooter - has nice move to basket also

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written by Unbelievable, February 08, 2012 - 05:55 PM

More importantly Mason is the polar opposite of McConnell as a person....unasuming, humble, doesn't whine at the refs or act like a spoiled brat. Finally Mason shows his talent with his game not his mouth.

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