Stakes were already high Friday night when John Milledge and Westminster met for the Region 4-AAA championship, but during that contest a very important and rare milestone was reached when Trojan senior Andrew Prestwood exceeded 2,000 points for his high school basketball career.

The achievement came on one of Prestwood’s best performances of the season as he finished with 40 points and led his team to a region championship.

Prestwood was a force of nature throughout the entire contest, but especially through the first three quarters. He was and has constantly been the answer to who is going to put points on the board when the Trojans most need it.

“I just go out and play,” Prestwood said after the win. “They kept me from knowing how many I needed tonight so I wouldn’t think about it. I tried not to think about it going into the game. I just tried to stick to the game plan and how we’re going to do it and it worked tonight.”

With his team down five and time dwindling in the third quarter, Prestwood let fly a 3-point attempt that looked to be closer to half court than the 3-point line. The shot found its home in the bottom of the net and gave John Milledge momentum heading into the final period. About midway through the fourth quarter he drove to the basket and was met by a Westminster defender. Prestwood contorted his body almost parallel to the floor and flung a circus shot with his left hand that also went through the rim. Whether it be off the dribble or spotted up Prestwood made shots from everywhere on the floor. He hit on seven 3-pointers and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the line en route to the victory.

“Andrew had a night,” said Trojans’ head coach David Gallagher. “He started off cold; I think he started 0-for-5 in the first five jump shots in the game then he caught fire. You always say as a coach that nothing ever goes as planned. The plan was to try and keep him fresh and get him in and out of the game a little bit because he played 32 minutes last night. He didn’t come out of the game tonight and ended up having 40 points.”