Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Have Basketball Skills, Will Travel
FARMINGTON ALUMNI WILSON REFLECTS ON SINGLE-GAME SCORING RECORD
FARMINGTON — Matt Wilson figured his singlegame scoring record at Farmington wouldn’t hold up — not the way Layne Taylor began his sophomore season averaging 40 points in one tournament.
Wilson, a 2017 Farmington graduate, made quite a name for himself as a high school senior torching Siloam Springs for 49 points to break the school record on Jan. 4, 2017, then hitting the 50-point plateau against Clarksville on Jan. 13, 2017.
“Yeah, that was a really special night. It was a lot of fun to be able to do that on Colors Day. We had a ton of fans out there on that night and Coach [Beau] Thompson just kind of [ knew],” Wilson said during a recent impromptu interview over the holiday break.
Farmington, then coached by Thompson, who is now Farmington athletic director, beat Clarksville 69-58 in a 5A West conference game behind Wilson’s 50. Wilson breaks into a wide grin recalling Thompson looked at him when he had 25 at the half and said, “This might be the night to do it again.”
Basketball Ambassador
Wilson found that achieving that level of play and owning a school record along with the notoriety comes an opportunity to become a basketball ambassador. When he comes back to Farmington in the summer the younger kids all know his name.
“They look up to you so it’s kind of nice having that responsibility and being that ambassador representing Farmington basketball purposing to be a good basketball player and a good person,” Wilson said.
Wilson got to play half of his high school basketball career in the old gym, Myrl Massie Gymnasium, and half of it in Cardinal Arena.
“I kind of got a cool experience doing that. I’m happy for all the kids who get to do it now because it’s such a beautiful arena, a beautiful facility and they get to have that for years to come,” Wilson said.
Defensive Improvement
Wilson was recruited by Jim Boone and signed to play men’s college basketball for Delta State at Cleveland, Miss. After two seasons with the Statesmen Wilson transferred to UAFS when Boone took that coaching job in April of 2019.
Wilson shrugged when asked about hearing Layne Taylor breaking his record with a 61- point explosion during an 85-74 nonconference win over Huntsville on Dec. 9.
“I thought that was awesome. I worked out with Layne some this summer. I have a good relationship with his dad, Coach [Johnny] Taylor. I was happy for him. I figured he was going to break the record the way he had been scoring and he ended up doing a really good job,” Wilson said.
Basketball can be a game of humility. A guy might make a good play on offense, but he had better be ready to defend at the other end of the court. This became a challenge for Wilson in moving up the collegiate level.
“That was something I didn’t do a lot of in high school was play defense. But with Coach Boone I feel like I’ve become a great defensive player, way better than I was in high school. Yeah, it’s a big change going to the college level and you definitely got to add that defensive part to your game, not just the offensive part,” Wilson said.
Clutch Shooter
Wilson continues to make the local news with highlights showing him making a clutch shot to win a college basketball game. Wilson drained a game- winning 3- pointer as time expired lifting Arkansas-Fort Smith to an 81- 80 overtime win on Saturday, Nov. 20 against Henderson State.
“That was a pretty fun game. We were playing Henderson State at home and it was a really back-andforth game. We ended up going into overtime and they scored with about 11 seconds left in overtime to take the lead up by two,” Wilson said.
Trailing 80-79 with 11 seconds left the Lions worked to redeem every second on their final possession although the Reddies didn’t make it easy. Chris Rollins, UAFS’ leading scorer on the night with 25 points, attempted a shot that got blocked but the ball wound up in the hands of UAFS post player, Braden Boyer, who dished the ball to Wilson for the game-winner as time expired.
Wilson breaks into a giant smile as he describes the action, “We got down the court and one of my teammates missed a shot. My post player got the rebound and he had the awareness and he threw it out to me at the 3-point line and I just threw it in right as the buzzer went off. It was awesome, you know. My teammates swarmed me just like when you have a buzzer-beater. It was an incredible feeling, one of the most fun games I’ve had in my life,” Wilson said.
Wilson scored 24 points in that game and came up with another game-winning shot on Jan. 20 to cap a wild 63-60 comeback win against Texas A&M Kingsville. Wilson and the Lions fell behind 60-53 with inside a minute to play in overtime, but orchestrated a 10-0 run scoring on each of their last four possessions. Wilson began the run with a jumper at the 1:33 mark then hit the game-winner to break a 60-60 tie after a missed free throw.
Truth In Cliche
Wilson says those opportunities show up because of hard work. He knows it’s a cliche but making it at the collegiate level takes hard work. It’s not enough just to go to practice and get through that and go home.
“You got to put the extra work in for it because I was never the fastest or tallest guy so that wasn’t going to be an advantage for me so I had to work on the fundamentals, my shooting, and all that stuff. For me it was just about getting that extra work in and I think that was the biggest difference maker for me,” Wilson said.
There’s still a possibility Wilson might play professional basketball overseas if he gets an opportunity. If that doesn’t happen then he wants to come back to Northwest Arkansas and teach and coach. That’s the plan.
Meanwhile, he intends to maximize all his eligibility and play basketball every chance he gets.
“With the covid thing I got an extra year so I had to do that. I can’t pass up an extra year of playing basketball,” Wilson said.
Wilson describes the joy of being privileged to compete in the game relishing the gift that Dr. James Naismith gave the nation and the world.
“The game of basketball has taken me all over the world. I’ve been to South Africa for it, I’ve been all over the United States for it. It’s been a blessing,” Wilson said. “You know just the relationship it creates that’s what it’s all about. It’s about winning and losing, but really when it comes down to it it’s about the relationships you form with your teammates, friends or coaches, everyone like that and it’s been a huge blessing for me.”
Wilson averages 20.7 points per game this season while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range, and has already attained the 1,000 career point plateau for his college career.