Welton Tally’s 2,000th Career Point

AURORA, Ill. January 2, 2008 - Aurora University Spartan men’s basketball senior standout Larry Welton (Chicago, IL/Thornwood H.S.) became just the third player in AU men’s basketball history to surpass the 2,000 point mark for a career.

Just two seasons after becoming the 26th player to enter the AU 1,000 Point Club, Welton scored his 2,000th point on a jump shot with 2:53 remaining in the first half of AU’s 74-63 loss at Franklin College on December 29, 2007.

Welton entered the night’s contest at Franklin four points shy of 2,000 and finished the evening with 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field, one-of-four from three-point range, and three-of-three from the free throw line. The previous night, in AU’s 78-71 win over Baldwin-Wallace, Welton scored 45 points on 15-of-27 shooting from the field and grabbed 11 rebounds. The 45 points was two shy of an AU single game record set by Clyde Oatis in the 1968-1969 season.

Welton reaches the 2,000 mark in just under three and one-half seasons in the AU men’s basketball program. He scored 562 points as a freshman, 615 points as a sophomore, 559 points as a junior and entering the 2008 portion of the schedule in his senior season, he has 272 points. On the year, Welton is averaging 22.7 points per game while shooting 45.1 percent from the field.

With 13 regular season contests remaining at AU, Welton is 138 points behind Clyde Oatis (1966-1970) for second on the all-time scoring list and is 445 points behind AU’s all-time leading scorer Mickey Johnson (1970-1974), Johnson has 2,453 career points.

Welton and the Spartan men are in action next on Wednesday, January 9, 2008, when they travel to Concordia University, Chicago. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. in a Northern Athletics Conference men’s basketball showdown. The Spartan men are currently 9-3 on the season and 5-0 in the NAC.

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