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Nijal Pearson never wanted to take one of the first big shots of his career.
Texas State was tied on the road with Coastal Carolina at 50-50 on Jan. 28, 2017. Chanticleers senior guard Shivaughn Wiggins missed a free throw with 40 seconds left. Pearson, a freshman guard at the time, grabbed the defensive rebound and turned up the court.
Head coach Danny Kaspar called a play. Pearson began with the ball on the left wing and drove to the middle of the court.
But he wasn’t looking to score.
“I knew I wanted to give it to (senior forward Kavin Gilder-Tilbury) the whole time. Like, I knew I wanted him to take the shot,” Pearson recalled. “I came off the play and I threw it to Kavin like, ‘Kavin, score. Go score the ball, Kavin.’”
Gilder-Tilbury drove baseline while Pearson flared back outside the arc. But the senior didn’t find the look Pearson was hoping for. He kicked it back out to the freshman with just a few seconds remaining on the shot clock.
“I'm like, ‘Ah, what do I do now?’” Pearson said. “‘I guess it's time for me to make a play.’”
Pearson used a rip-through move to get by his defender and pulled up at the elbow. The shot fell in and Coastal Carolina called timeout with 12 seconds remaining. Senior guard Colton Ray-St. Cyr missed a layup on the final possession of the game and Pearson grabbed the board to seal the 52-50 victory.
It was the 20th game of Pearson’s career. His game-winner gave him 265 total points at Texas State.
Pearson’s scored 1,611 points in the 100 games he’s played in since, becoming the Bobcats’ No. 2 all-time leading scorer. Charles Sharp set the program record of 1,884 points 60 years ago. Pearson now needs just nine points to break it, with 13 games left in the regular season to do so.
It’s likely to happen in the maroon and gold’s next game. Pearson’s averaging a career-high 19.7 points per game in his senior season. He dropped 75 points combined over his last three games and was named the Sun Belt Conference and 3x3U National Championship Player of the Week on Monday.
But truthfully, it’s never been a goal for the senior.
“Never was I chasing the all-time leading scorer,” Pearson said. “I didn't even know what the all-time leading scorer number was, so I couldn't chase it coming in. But after my freshman year, I saw when I broke the freshman scoring record, I thought I had a chance if I keep getting better and kept improving.”
Pearson’s improvement has been tangible. His field goal, 3-point and free throw percentages have all reached new heights in his final year in San Marcos.
But they didn’t just rise on their own. Pearson worked to get them there.
When Pearson first entered the program, Kaspar thought he had the potential to become an all-conference player.
“But to become the all-time leading scorer, you know, I gotta admit, I really didn't think about that,” Kaspar said. “I really started to think of him as a unique individual because of the amount of time and effort he put in the gym. When I started seeing how much time and effort he put in the gym, shooting on his own, I began to realize that, ‘Hey, this guy could be something special,’ because he's such a hard worker.”
Pearson’s improvement has been intangible, too. He’s grown from the passive rookie hesitant to take the buzzer-beater to the veteran leader telling his teammates “We're alright. Don't trip, just give me the ball,” before draining a trey with 13 seconds left that led to a 69-68 road win over UTSA on Dec. 1, 2018.
“I just think that we're very fortunate to have him,” Kaspar said. “He was not a highly recruited young man out of high school and I think he's really worked hard to develop himself. But I also think that he's just a natural leader who's got great instincts for basketball. He's a very smart young man, both on the court and in the classroom. And so, like I told my assistant coaches, these are the kind of young men that help you win championships.”
The record still isn’t a goal of Pearson’s. As far as scoring goes, he’s really only had two items on his bucket list. The first was to reach 1,000 career points, because “everyone wants to be a 1,000-point scorer.” Pearson reached the millennial mark in the first game of his junior season, a 67-57 home win over Air Force on Nov. 9, 2018.
The second is to reach 2,000 points. And if he passes Charles Sharp on the way, so be it.
“It'd be an honor and a blessing. It's not that deep where it's like 'Oh, I accomplished my lifelong dream,' or anything like that,” Pearson said. “The biggest thing for me would be just the fact that I've made it. I made a name for myself. You know, that's something nobody could ever take away from me. So like, when I leave here, even if someone comes and passes my record or three, four players come and pass it up, you know, I still set the bar higher. I challenged somebody else to top me.
“I mean, who knows, but let's say 50, 60 years from now and let's say I'm not living. My name would because they're gonna say, ‘Such and such is trying to pass up Nijal Pearson.’ So that's big for me, you know, I made my last name something that will be around here forever.”
Pearson will attempt to break Texas State’s all-time scoring record Thursday when the Bobcats (10-8, 3-4 Sun Belt) take on Louisiana-Monroe (6-10, 2-5) at 7 p.m. in Monroe, Louisiana.
