His priorities are set.
Football may be No. 1 in Troyer Carlson’s sports world, but the Kaneland junior’s 1A — basketball — fills the bill just fine come winter.
“Definitely football,” said Carlson, who’s a three-year varsity starter at quarterback for the Knights. “I want to be able to play it in college.”
Meanwhile, the 6-foot-3 guard doubles down on the basketball court, where he’s also in his third year on the varsity and leads the team in scoring by averaging 18.6 points.
“Troyer knows what we’re trying to do,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “We count on him for a lot of things in terms of leadership and getting us going.”
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Carlson got things going Tuesday night, scoring a game-high 19 points as the Knights won their 10th straight by holding off pesky Plano 49-38 in an Interstate Eight Conference game.
It was anything but a perfect 10, however.
“It wasn’t our best game,” Carlson said. “We usually score a lot more points. We’re thinking more offensively. We had a slow start. They were hanging with us for most of the game.
“We kind of felt like we should have played better and should have beaten this team by more.”
The records would say so.
Kaneland (11-1, 5-0), which sits atop the conference standings, enters next’s week’s 59th annual Plano Christmas Classic as the third seed behind defending champion Burlington Central and second-seeded Marmion.
The host Reapers (2-10, 1-4) are unseeded in the 16-team tournament.
Colombe and Carlson agreed being in the midst of final exams and all the talk of an impending heavy snowstorm headed this way were not factors.
“It was a weird night,” Colombe said. “No excuse. Plano had a lot to do with it.”
The Reapers, led by 10 points each from Bernard Clark and AJ Johnson, didn’t play like a 10-loss team.
“They have a lot of quickness and multiple guys who can get to the rim,” Colombe said. “Early on, I think Plano wanted to send a message.
“They were beating us to loose balls and beating us on the glass, but I think we rebounded better after that.”
A 2-3 zone helped Kaneland slow Plano’s drives and the Knights led 23-17 after two quarters. Carlson’s 3-pointer to open the second half extended it to nine points.
“If we start faster, we play better as a team,” said Carlson, who scored 13 of his points in the second half.
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Johnny Spallasso finished with nine points and Parker Violett added seven points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds for Kaneland.
“We’re at our best when the ball is moving,” Colombe said. “I think guys were trying to do too much to get going and settling for some bad shots.”
Plano cut the deficit to three points midway through the third quarter and within six twice in the final four minutes, only to have the Knights answer each time.
Plano made just 12% (2 of 17) from 3-point range. Kaneland wasn’t much better, making 20%, but attempted just 10.
“We scored 88 on Saturday against Johnsburg, but you’re not going to score 88 in a high school game every week,” Colombe said. “We know in our conference there will be a lot of games in the 40s.”
It was the sixth time the Knights have held their opponent to 40 points or less.
“We’re a young team and we just keep getting better every day,” Carlson said. “There’s nothing more you could ask for than that. I just try to be a leader and get my teammates better every day.
“We’re in a good spot. We just need to keep grinding out these wins.”