BLACKFOOT — Luke Higginson, a 17-year-old senior at Snake River High School, recently scored his 1,000th point for the high school's varsity basketball team. 

Higginson joins only one other player in the team's history to score 1,000 points in their high school basketball career. Lance Hansen set the record around 1995, and until now was the lone member of the 1,000-points club for nearly three decades. 

"It's pretty crazy. I definitely thought it'd be more than just me and him because there have been some great players that have come through here," Higginson said of his being only the second person to score 1,000 points for the varsity team.

As a point guard who's played on varsity since his freshman year, Higginson sunk most of his hundreds of baskets during his first three years on the team. He hit 1,000 points just a few games into his senior year, with several games still to play.

Higginson said his team knew he was getting close to scoring his 1,000th point when they started their game against Filer on Dec. 8, so the team planned to stop play mid-game and celebrate Higginson's achievement when it happened. 

"I didn't know that they were going to do that," Higginson said of his team stopping the game to celebrate him. "I hit two free throws to reach (1,000 points), and then they stopped the game and called a timeout, gave me a plaque. That was pretty cool."

Higginson said while he didn't initially set out to score 1,000 points during his high school basketball career, he was averaging 20 points a game at one point, and he realized last season that he was getting pretty close to the record.

"That's when it hit me that it seemed like an achievable goal," he said. Higginson said he attributes his reaching 1,000 points to repetition during practice, and to his ability to continually to put up shots during games to help his team score. 

Higginson is one of only a handful of freshman at Snake River who have played on the high school's boys varsity basketball team, indicating his talent in the sport. 

The 17-year-old said he doesn't know where his basketball skills will take him after he graduates in May, but his plan is to first serve a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints immediately following high school.

For now, he's looking forward to finishing out the season in his senior year, with his focus on helping his team get to the state championship game. 

"Our goal is to get to the state championship this year," he said. "We've made it to semi-finals past three years and have lost by one or two points. We're playing a lot better now because we're trusting each other a lot more, so we'll hopefully just continue to build on that and get better each day."