Ex-Broward high school hoops star becomes bracket-busting ‘automatic’ shooter
When Chase Johnston was a kid at Westminster Academy, practice would typically last two hours. Johnston would then work with his father, Kevin, and WA coach Ehren Wallhoff, putting up another 500 shots.
Finally, after all that, Johnston would go around the horn – left corner, left wing, right wing, right corner and back again – having to make eight straight shots before he could call it a night.
And, to make things even tougher, the last four shots had to be straight swishes, touching no part of the rim.
“There were days when he would get frustrated,” Wallhoff said. “Those last eight shots might take an extra half hour, even when he made them all.”
Johnston, now a 6-2 and 190-pound sixth-year senior, still swishes most of his shots. College basketball fans witnessed that on Thursday night as he made 4-of-6 on 3-pointers – including one from the logo -- to help lead High Point to an 83-82 upset win over Wisconsin in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament.
He also made the winning layup with 11.7 seconds left.
“When they gave me the ball,” Johnston told reporters after the game, “I said, ‘Chase, just finish this layup, and we can shock the world.”
Amazingly, it was Johnston’s first two-point basket of the season.
Then again, when you can shoot quick-release, highly-accurate 3-pointers like Johnston, why bother with mere 2-pointers?
On Saturday night, 12th-seeded High Point’s dream season ended in a competitive 94-88 loss to fourth-seeded Arkansas.
Johnston – hounded by Razorbacks defenders who were well aware of the scouting report – still managed to shoot 3-for-8 on 3-pointers.
For the season, Johnston made an incredible 48.6 percent of his 3-point shots (71-of-146).
Not that Wallhoff is surprised.
“I got to know him as a seventh-grader,” Wallhoff said. “Chase was this little guard weighing 95 pounds, but he could get his shot off on anybody.
“He was also feisty. He had a chip on his shoulder.”
Johnston parlayed his competitive spirit and his dead-eye shooting into a stellar prep career that included three state titles and also a monster 52-point game against Montverde.
In fact, he also set the national record for career 3-pointers made (546), and he was Florida’s Class 4A Player of the Year as a senior.
Johnston started his college career at Purdue University Fort Wayne. But, according to Wallhoff, Johnston returned closer to home (Stetson) when his father had some serious health issues.
At Stetson, Johnson averaged 13.5 points as a freshman, winning honors as the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Rookie of the Year. The next year, Johnston averaged 15.2 points – which still stands as his career high – earning second-team All-A-Sun honors with a program-record 99 3-pointers.
Johnston then played two years at Florida Gulf Coast and two more at High Point.
He seemingly became an “overnight sensation” on Thursday with his long-range shooting followed by his rare layup. But it was hardly that as his “15 minutes of fame” came after years of hard work and countless shots put up and swished.
Johnston is now 26 years old, and his future is likely in the ministry as he is a devout Christian.
But it wouldn’t surprise Wallhoff if a pro team somewhere calls on Johnston because he is – as the TBS broadcasters said on Saturday – an “automatic” shooter.
“I think there will be opportunities for him to play pro ball,” Wallhoff said. “I think he is leaning toward the ministry, but I know he still loves basketball.”
And he especially loves those straight swishes.