Wheaton College men's basketball junior and Watertown High alumnus Anthony Coppola became the 12th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone, hitting the plateau during the Lyons' season opener at Emerson College on Tuesday. In netting 18 points, Coppola became the fourth junior to record 1,000 points after narrowly missing out on being the initial sophomore to hit the mark, finishing last year with 983.
A first-year captain, Coppola canned a 3-pointer with 54 seconds remaining of an eventual 59-56 loss to the Lions, bringing Wheaton within three points. Coppola became the first Blue and White player to clear the 1,000-point barrier since Brian Zukowski ('07) on Nov. 17, 2006, and the initial Lyon junior since Josean Vega ('05) on Jan. 29, 2004.
With 1,001 career points, Coppola is now just 37 short of entering Wheaton's top 10. A 40.1-percent career 3-point shooter, the two-time all-conference selection is seventh in school history in 3-pointers (128). In 52 games as a Lyon, Coppola has paced the squad in scoring 39 times while canning at least one three in 48 contests.
As a sophomore, Coppola averaged 18.6 points while tying for seventh in program history in field goals (172) and netting the 10th-most points (483). The shooting guard tied a school record with 15 field goals against Salve Regina University on Nov. 18, 2008, while tying for third in points, dropping an underclassman record-tying 37. During the 2007-08 campaign, Coppola landed all-region honors in addition to being named the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference's (NEWMAC) and D3hoops.com Northeast Region's top rookie. He tied a school record with four 30-point games, hit the second-most 3-pointers in program history (85) and recorded the second-best 3-point percentage (47.2). Coppola also placed seventh in points (500) and tied for seventh in field goals (172).
Prior to Coppola scoring at least 483 points each of the past two seasons, only two underclassmen in program annals had reached that plateau, with Will Hawkins ('93) and Chris Sullivan ('93) both doing so on one occasion. Sullivan and Hawkins stand first and second, respectively, in school history in scoring.
