Grand Forks Red River's Pearce Parks breaks program scoring record of former star Reed Monson

GRAND FORKS On Thursday night, in the semifinals of the East Region tournament in Fargo, Grand Forks Red River's Pearce Parks broke the program's career scoring record.

The game wasn't stopped for any ceremony.

The Roughriders had a game to win, which ended with Parks being mobbed by teammates anyway.

ADVERTISEMENT Parks' buzzer-beating fadeaway from just inside the free-throw line gave the Roughriders an 80-79 comeback win over West Fargo Horace securing Red River's place in next weekend's Division AA state tournament.

Parks entered the game 28 points shy of Red River legend Reed Monson, who scored 1,560 points in his career.

"I found out last year as soon as I hit 1,000 and saw an article that said the record was 1,560, and it was always in the back of my mind," Parks said of when the record became on his radar.

"I knew if I had a good season, it was attainable.

It was not my main focus.

The focus was to get back to state.

My mom asked me before the game if she should bring some stuff down for (the record), and I said let's worry about getting to state and then think about it.

I knew going into the game I needed close to 30.

Like I said, though, I was so focused on trying to win the game.

I wasn't worried about stats or the record." Parks finished with 34 points in the region semifinals two days after dropping 32 points on West Fargo Sheyenne in the region quarterfinals.

In the semifinals, Parks' Riders needed to overcome a 20-point deficit.

"It was awesome," Parks said.

"At the end of the day, it's not me, we were down 20 and that's a team effort.

Our coach gave us a halftime speech to just fight.

We cut it to 10, 7, 3, 1.

At the end of the game, the shot went down." Monson, who played his first season of college basketball at the University of Tennessee before a long playing and coaching career in France, helped the Roughriders to a 1969 state title.

ADVERTISEMENT Monson's rivalry with Grand Forks Central's Glenn Hansen, who would play college basketball at LSU and Utah State and in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls and Kansas City Kings, sparked an era considered the golden age of local basketball.

Earlier in the region tournament, Parks passed Luke Schreiner for second place on Red River's all-time scoring list.

Schreiner scored 1,502 career points.

Parks was a role player as a freshman on a team led by his brother Paine Parks, now a linebacker for the UND football team.

As a sophomore, Parks took a more prominent role on a team led by standouts Zach Kraft and Reis Rowekamp.

Kraft, now a UND men's basketball player, scored 1,333 career points for fourth all-time, while Rowekamp also eclipsed 1,000 career points.

The Riders finished runner-up that season at state in a widly entertaining championship game with Fargo North.

"I had so many great teammates but Zach and Reis helped me so much," Parks said.

"I'm close with those two still.

They helped me become much better." Red River coach Kirby Krefting spoke to Parks a month ago that the record was in reach.

ADVERTISEMENT "I told him not to let it affect his game, and he said there's no way it's going to affect his game," Krefting said.

"This kid is a guy who can handle it.

He deserves it.

The banner is coming in (Friday), and we'll do something (Saturday).

It should be recognized." Krefting said he has a hard time taking Parks off the court.

"He's a gamer and a competitor," Krefting said.

"Coming into the (East Region) tournament, he has the mindset, I'm going to get a bucket if needed but if doubled our tripled, he'll get it to his teammates.

He'll tell everyone it's the teammates getting him the ball, but he does a lot, too." Parks, a star quarterback for the Riders the past three seasons, plans to attend UND next year and major in communications.

He hasn't decided on a football future.

"I've been thinking about trying out," he said.

"I'm going to go through basketball season and think about that after.".

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