‘Just making shots’: Central Valley’s Dylan Darling breaks Greater Spokane League single-game scoring record

Scoring a lot of points and setting records isn’t something new to Central Valley’s Dylan Darling. He’s been doing it all season.

But Tuesday night he outdid himself – and everyone else in the history of the Greater Spokane League.

Darling scored 58 points on Tuesday against North Central, breaking the league’s single-game scoring record of 47 set in 2013 by University’s Brett Bailey – and tied last week by Darling in a win over Mt. Spokane.

He broke his school record, set earlier this season, hitting 22 field goals including six 3-pointers. He hit 17 of 19 shots in the first half, scored CV’s first 20 points and had 28 at the end of the first quarter.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like that,” Central Valley acting coach Geoff Arte said. “The coaches, we were all just kind of wide-eyed. And it was fun to watch our kids react. They see him play every day so it wasn’t too surprising to them, but you could tell they were, ‘Whoa, something’s going on here.’ ”

Earlier this season, Darling set CV’s single-game scoring record with 53 points against Post Falls in a nonleague game on opening night, topping the mark of 41 points by David Sanders in 1984. That night he made 20 field goals, breaking a school record which stood since 1946.

Darling is averaging 34 points in 17 games this season heading into Friday’s GSL 4A showdown against Gonzaga Prep.

“Super excited,” he said of the matchup. “Should be a good one.”

The Bears (12-6, 6-2) need to beat G-Prep (12-6, 7-0), then get help from Mt. Spokane in the Bullpups’ last game of the season, in order to edge out G-Prep for the top GSL seed to the 4A district tournament.

Darling is 13 points away from 1,000 in his career. Because of last season’s COVID-shortened campaign, he probably won’t catch CV’s career leading scorer, Derek Taylor (1,248 points), but should pass Jason Hull (997) at No. 2.

Then there’s the matter of the GSL season scoring average. Adam Morrison (Mead) holds that record of 28.5 ppg in 19 league games in the 2002-03 season. Darling is averaging 36.1 points with one league game to go.

Darling was aware of the single-game record, having tied it last week, but it wasn’t originally on his mind Tuesday.

“I wasn’t really going out there trying to get it,” he said. “On the scoreboard (at North Central), you could see how many points you had and at the end of the first (half), I saw that I had like 30-something. And I was like, ‘Oh, I could probably get it done.’ ”

Darling said he let the game come to him.

“We were just playing fast and to be honest, I was just making shots,” he said. “I was feeling good, and I had a lot of open looks. I just had it going early.”

As a sophomore, Darling was a role player off the bench in Central Valley’s run to the State 4A title game. He’s taken his game to the next level over the past two years.

“It’s just a lot of hours in the gym,” he said. “Just my role improving too, I guess. Now coach has kind of given me a green light, so I let it fly.”

He said he appreciates the confidence his coaches have in him not just to take the shot, but to take good shots.

“That’s just the trust we’ve built since I was a sophomore,” Darling said. “I mean, I’ve never been the type to take horrible shots or forced shots. And they run a lot of good sets for me. Coach (Geoff) Arte’s an X’s and O’s mastermind to get me open, which helps.”

“He shot it exceptionally well (Tuesday), which he’s done all year really,” Arte said.

“But he was hot early. They were playing zone and we’ve been working on taking what the defense gives you. They were giving him the 3-pointer and he was knocking them down.”

With the 1,000-point mark rapidly approaching, Darling has hopes for postseason recognition, but the main goal is returning the Bears to the state tournament.

After that, it’s off to college at Idaho State. Darling said the process was difficult considering all the challenges presented by the pandemic.

“The recruitment was slow,” Darling said. “In the summer I messed up and played with a bad AAU team and just didn’t get to play how I usually play. So, I knew the recruiting would pick up once school ball started.”

He ended up impressed by the Bengals.

“The coaching staff was dope,” he said. “They were like family from the start. They believed in me, and I believe in them. Put me in the right spots and I think I can make a big impact down there.”