Purdue commitment Fletcher Loyer went for 50 vs. Marion
Just before Fletcher Loyer checked out of his Homestead team's 92-77 Tuesday night win at Marion, the host Giants were whistled for a timely technical foul.
Loyer stepped to the foul line.
"One of our J.V. players said, 'You're at 48!,'" Loyer said. "I said to him, 'Man, you better not have just jinxed me.'"
It might have taken a bit more than a jinx, considering the Purdue Class of 2022 recruit is shooting 97 percent from the foul line this season, but the free throws were good, accounting for Points Nos. 49 and 50, the highest-scoring game in the Fort Wayne high school's history, and finishing off quite a show on his father, John's, birthday.
Understand this: Fifty points in a 32-minute high school basketball game, with no shot clock to hurry play along, is hard to do. And Homestead, now 10-0 and ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 4A, is a well-balanced team with a structured, spread-the-wealth sort of offensive approach and plenty of other weapons, including a legitimate 2020 Mr. Basketball candidate, Luke Goode.
"We try to always find the hot hand," Homestead coach Chris Johnson said. "That night, he certainly did have it."
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Loyer's an elite-level jump-shooter who's now shooting 49 percent from three-point range this season on an average of nearly eight attempts per game.
But only 18 of his 50 vs. Marion came from distance, as he was 6-of-10 from beyond the arc. He was 14-of-18 on two-point shots as Homestead figured out Marion's pressing defense.
"It was mostly just getting to the rim, a few backdoor plays, a few offensive rebounds," Loyer said. "It was mostly just attacking the basket."
It came organically, another reflection that Loyer has fit well with his new team after transferring in from Michigan before this season.
When Loyer showed up at Homestead this summer, Johnson's immediate impulse was to use the incoming junior at point guard, a position he'd not really played previously at Clarkston High School, where he once scored 42 in a game.
Homestead needed a point guard, but Johnson also saw in Loyer the sort of IQ and basketball savvy that would fit well orchestrating an offense that's largely motion-driven, similar to what Purdue has historically been under Matt Painter. It's a role where the point guard sets up the offense and then the system takes over, affording opportunities for everyone on the floor.
"Fletcher can really score and he's only going to get better once he makes himself stronger and matures more," said Johnson, who coached former Purdue All-American Caleb Swanigan in high school as well. "You can't teach what he's able to do the way he can shoot it."
He just doesn't have to necessarily force it.
"Playing more point guard this year, it was a little different to find that balance and really just doing what it takes to win," Loyer said. "For my team, I know it really helps if I can go out there and get 20 or 30 points, but let's say someone else is feeling it that night. I'm not going to feel obligated to go get my own or anything like that. It's just about doing whatever I can to help the team win."
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