Photo courtesy of Rhonda Larson Springfield’s Decker Scheffler passed 2,000 career points on Tuesday in a home victory over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop. Tigers head coach Lance Larson also picked up his 300th career win.

SPRINGFIELD — Decker Scheffler knew he needed 43 points to reach the 2,000-point mark for his career on Tuesday night. He figured he’d have to wait until Friday’s game to get to that milestone.

He was wrong.

The Springfield senior hit a corner 3-pointer with about 8 minutes left against Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop and became the second member of the 2,000-point club at Springfield High School. He currently has 2,000 points and he is second all-time in school history in career scoring.

“My plan was to get it on Friday, I didn’t plan on getting it against GFW at home, but it’s out of the way and it’s kind of nice,” Scheffler said. “I can go to the doubleheader on Friday [the Springfield boys and girls play back-to-back games on Friday at Cedar Mountain] and just focus on the game. We don’t have to worry about stopping the game and all that stuff.”

As the game went on, Springfield coach Lance Larson thought that it would be nice for Scheffler to get the milestone at home.

Scheffler had 18 points in the first half but he got hot in the second half and the point total crept closer to the 43 that he needed.

“It was kind of cool, once he started scoring early, I figured maybe there was a chance,” Larson said. “We looked up and about halfway through the second half, he had 37 so I said that we might as well try and let him get it at home because the next couple of games are on the road.”

What made the night even more special was that his coach, Lance Larson, also hit a milestone as he celebrated his 300th career win. Larson has been the coach of the Tigers since the 2007-08 season and has had only one losing season in that time. He led the Tigers to a state championship in the 2010-11 season and has brought the Tigers to four state tournaments in that time.

“When we got here [in 2007-08] that wasn’t the case, and we were fortunate enough to go through a pretty good cycle,” Larson said of the program’s success. “We had a pretty lean year that first year with only three wins and then from that point on, we haven’t had a losing season, so that’s pretty special. It’s something that we take a lot of pride in and once you start winning, the kids get excited and the younger kids get excited, those programs fill with numbers. Winning breeds winning as they say.”

During Larson’s tenure, he’s coached 10 players who have reached the 1,000-point mark. That list includes Isaac Fink (3,382), Scheffler (2,000 and counting), Tanner Vogel (1,832), Tyler Vogel (1,579), Kale Meendering (1,251), Jordan Milbrath (1,240), Tyler Marz (1,217), Alex Fink (1,102), Mitchell Buerkle (1,044 and counting) and Jesse Kieper (1,003).

Scheffler has watched Scheffler’s role continue to grow every year since Scheffler came off the bench in his freshman year, a year the Tigers went to the state tournament. On Tuesday, the two celebrated an individual milestone together and they both have been instrumental to each other’s success.

“He’s awesome, he gave me a chance my freshman year and that was awesome of him,” Scheffler said. “I proved myself pretty well throughout that year and to just have him as a coach these past five years since eighth grade, JV as well, has been awesome.”