Younger brother lends a hand as Holbrook's Owen Burke surpasses 1,000 career points

HOLBROOK − Operation Owen.

It was a game plan well choreographed by the Holbrook High boys basketball team, and the execution was perfect.

Senior guard Owen Burke was 14 points away from hitting 1,000 career points entering play against South Shore Christian Academy Friday night. Not only did none of his teammates shoot the ball − let alone even look at the basket − until he hit the record, but Burke's younger brother Keagan, an eighth grader who plays on the JV team, got the varsity promotion to lend a helping hand.

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At the 3:21 mark of the first quarter, Keagan Burke grabbed an outlet pass from junior Armani Perkins in transition, took one dribble and lofted a cross-court pass to his older brother, who was wide open on the left wing to bury a 3-pointer as Holbrook burst out to a 14-3 start.

“That was the plan," head coach Rich Gifford said with a smile after the Bulldogs' 61-32 win.

Keagan Burke checked into the game as Owen stepped to the free throw line, looking to convert an and-one layup on the possession prior that gave him 11 points with just three more to go. A timeout was then called, and the milestone-clinching play was rehearsed once more.

“(Owen) loves to shoot threes. So when we called a timeout, I said, ‘The only way to cross 1,000 is with a three.’ He said, ‘I got you, Coach,'" Gifford recalled. "I made sure that Keagan was on the floor so worst-case scenario, his younger brother was on the floor with him, but he ended up throwing him the pass.

And “as soon as he (did), I went, ‘This is it.' I just knew it was going in.”

Burke becomes the ninth player in Holbrook High history to surpass the 1,000-point threshold and the first since all-time leading scorer Jeremiah King graduated with about 1,600 points in 2019.

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Burke said his father, Patrick, was first to think of the idea to let Keagan toss the assist.

“That was one of the most important things I wanted to happen today," Owen Burke said. "I wanted him to pass me the ball for the assist and shoot the three. I think my family really liked it. Thanks to Coach Gifford, he let that happen.”

Burke, a reigning All-Scholastic who put up 17 points per game as a junior, got the scoring started early as Perkins slapped the opening tip-off to him, placing it just ahead of the unsuspecting defense for a routine right-hand layup just seconds into play.

Burke proceeded to finish two other layups in transition as a result of forced turnovers, plus two spot-up 3-pointers (including the clincher) en route to his 14-point spurt to start the game.

“I knew coming in I only needed 14. If it wasn’t for my teammates and my coaches, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I’d be lying to you if I told you I wasn’t nervous all day,” Burke said.

Freshman Allen Brown Jr. scored the first non-Burke bucket with 2:10 to play in the first quarter as Holbrook led, 18-5. Burke finished with 17 points in roughly 2½ quarters of action.

“In my 13 years at Holbrook, he’s one of the finest – if not the finest – person, athlete, basketball player I’ve ever coached,” Gifford said of Burke. “And I mean that sincerely.”

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Gifford said he first saw Burke play six years ago, when he and assistant coach Mike Bolger volunteered to coach the seventh grade team twice a week, and many of the players stuck around to ascend to the current varsity team.

Gifford has seen Burke refine his scoring touch firsthand since then. Friday, he made sure the milestone didn't stem from happenstance.

“He’s a kid that really, really has put the time into his game to become the player he is,” Gifford said of Burke.

“He’s a great player," Perkins said. "He moves without the ball, he does everything for us. He helps us in big games, all of that.”

In Friday's win, Perkins finished with a well-rounded performance of 6 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds (plus a ferocious dunk in the third quarter). Junior Jalik Fernandes scored 9 points, junior Cameron Campell scored 6 points (two of them a dunk of his own) and freshman Parsons Janvier also scored 6.

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Keagan Burke didn't score in his varsity debut, but he finished with one assist − the assist.

“Chemistry is one of the most important things on our team and having everyone back from last year, it helps a lot," said Owen Burke. "Having good sixth and seventh men coming off the bench, that’s even better. It’s a really good season.”

Added Perkins, “I feel like everybody’s playing their role, just getting into the groove of everything. We’re winning games.”

In the first release of the MIAA power rankings Friday, Holbrook's 5-1 start gave the Bulldogs the No. 13 spot in Division 5. The team is building on last year's 13-8 season in which they suffered a 50-39 loss to No. 2 Baystate Academy in the Round of 32 to end the season as the bracket's No. 34 seed.

“It’s a lot of work and I love it," Gifford said of seeing the team's improvement. "I love watching them grow more as people than I do as basketball players. That’s very important to me. You see where they’ve come from, and (Burke) is walking around here now with his family (celebrating). He’s been doing this for six years. He put in his time."

“I’ve got to enjoy the moment because it only happens once," Burke said. "It felt really good.”

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Holbrook's Burke becomes ninth 1,000-point scorer in school history