Orlando Gonzales joins the 500 career point club
Monday February 12, 2024 - 4:00 p.m. | Dylan DeVlieger
Orlando Gonzales joined teammate Lual Lual in an exclusive club on Saturday as he scored his 500th career point as a Thunderbird. Gonzales becomes just the 10th player to reach the milestone in the last 11 years.
It was a pivotal game in Mesa's season as the T-Birds were fighting for a postseason spot, against the Fighting Artichokes Gonzales was his typical productive self as he finished the game with 18 points connecting on four shots from distance.
Even though Gonzales knew the milestone was just three points away before the game started, the achievement didn't stick around in his mind as he knew that because of their woes at the beginning of the season every game for the Thunderbirds is a must win if they hope to make the postseason.
"I was focussed on getting the win, we're at a point where we lost a lot of games early. Every game is a must win game to make the playoffs so I was just focused on getting the win and doing whatever I can to help the team," said Gonzales.
This was the 15th game of 12 or more points this season for Gonzales and the 10th game of at least three shots made from beyond long range.
The leap Gonzales has made from his freshman to sophomore year has been incredible, more than doubling his PPG, averaging three more APG, and somehow becoming more of an efficient shooter from deep as he improved his 3-point percentage by nearly 10%.
For Gonzales his improvement all came from the trust his coaching staff has in him. Gonzales is who the MCC offense seems to flow through down the stretch and the MCC coaching staff gives Gonzales all the freedom to create for his teammates, distribute, and most importantly shoot the ball at will.
"It's the coaches, coach Neal believes in me and I appreciate it, he lets me get open shots and take them. He's confident in me taking them and I appreciate and love him for that," said Gonzales.
This season Gonzales has had some games where you look at the statsheet and think there was a typo. On Jan. 6 MCC was in a battle with Chandler-Gilbert, back and forth the teams battled and Gonzles was leading the charge for the T-Birds.
Gonzales had a career high 29 points while he shot 80% from downtown. Shooting 80% from deep is impressive but when you take into account that Gonzales went 8-10 from deep the stat is even more impressive. To go along with his career night scoring Gonzales also had five assists.
It's been proven especially this year that Gonzales is more than just a shooter as he has been getting his teammates involved all season. In his 19 games played this season Gonzales has had 12 games of four or more assists, including a career high nine assist night against South Mountain on Jan. 27.
Coming to MCC Gonzales never knew achieving such a milestone would be possible, but even if he did think it was, hitting an individual achievement such as 500 points was never his goal as he has only worked hard for his team to succeed and get better everyday.
"I didn't know it was possible, I was just trying to do whatever I can to get to the next level and to help the team win," said Gonzales, "I was doing everything I can to help us win, not worrying about myself, just trying to help the team."
Action Photo Credit: AZ Basketball
