A banner day for basketball stars

There are any number of ways a basketball can pass through a hoop.

An early-game layup or a desperation heave with time running out. A mid-range jumper or a 30-foot bomb from beyond the three-point arc. An uncontested slam dunk or a grinding drive with a defender draped all over you.

And then there are the free throws, often made under the most pressure-filled conditions. Just you at the line, blocking out the noise from the stands; a few bounces, set, and release the ball with a stroke you’ve perfected through countless repetitions in gyms and on playgrounds and in driveway pick-up games.

On Saturday, Clark will honor the players who scored with greater precision and volume than any others in school history. Two ceremonies, the first during halftime of the women’s 2 p.m. game against Mount Holyoke, and the second at halftime of the men’s 4 p.m. contest against Wheaton, will recognize 52 players who scored a thousand or more points in their Clark basketball careers (see full list below). Their names and scoring totals will be memorialized on new banners hung on the wall in the Kneller Athletic Center.

“These players left everything on the court in every game,” says Trish Cronin, director of athletics and recreation. “They didn’t just have a passion for basketball, they had a passion for Clark. And you can still feel it.”

Two current players on the men’s team, seniors Isaiah Taylor and Bruce Saintilus, have already exceeded the 1,000-point threshold and, when their playing careers are done, will have their names added to the banner.

Cronin noted that private donations were key to funding the 1,000-point banners as well as other athletics banners that are slated to go on the wall at a future date.

For those wishing to see some of the former hardwood stars in action, alumni will play two games on Saturday — the women at 11 a.m., followed by the men at 11:45.

‘Winning mattered most to me’

At just under six feet, Duane Corriveau ’64 was hardly oversized, but even as an off-guard and small forward, he played a big game.

Competing in significantly fewer games than today’s college players and prior to the introduction of the three-point shot, he still amassed 1,875 points over four seasons, more than any other player in the history of Clark men’s basketball. On the court in the old Alumni Gym (today’s dining hall), he was known to launch deep jumpers from the corner with deadly accuracy. The night he broke the men’s scoring record, the former record holder, Ralph Saunders ’54, met him at the gym door, shook his hand, and congratulated him.

“I’m ready to do the same,” Corriveau says, adding with a laugh, “I’ve been waiting 60 years for it.”

Corriveau, who shot an estimable 49.9 percent in his Clark career and earned All New England honors in 1963 and 1964, averaged 26 points a game (including 35 points per game his senior year). His strong college career got him drafted by the Boston Celtics, who brought him to camp where he competed against some of the game’s legends like Bill Russell, K.C. and Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, and John Havlicek. The Celtics were historically talented and populated with five future NBA hall of famers, leaving no roster spot for the kid from Clark.

“I pounded the hardwood for two weeks, and I’m pleased with what I accomplished,” Corriveau says of his training camp experience. (Another Clark 1,000-point scorer, the late Dan Trant ’84, would be drafted by the Celtics 20 years later.)

Corriveau taught history for 39 years at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, Massachusetts, and coached the boys’ varsity basketball team for some of that time, retiring in 2003. He also served as an assistant coach at Clark, including a decade-long stretch alongside head coach Wally Halas ’73, MPA ’93, who built the men’s team into an NCAA contender (and whose name is also on the 1000-point-scorers banner).

As for his on-court accomplishments, Corriveau says he was never concerned about personal records.

“I never once thought about the record, only about winning games,” he says. “That’s what mattered most to me.”

‘It feels like yesterday’

When she was a senior in high school, Meegan Garrity Turini ’97 attended a Clark women’s basketball game with her father. Clark was down by nine points with about a minute to go but stormed back for the win thanks to clutch three-point shooting.

“It was raining threes,” she remembers. “I thought it was awesome. I looked at my dad and said, ‘I’m coming here.’ ”

Garrity Turini did more than come to Clark. She left an indelible mark, becoming Clark’s all-time leading scorer with 2,793 career points and helping lead the team to the NCAA second round in her first year and the ECAC New England Championship as a sophomore. Her individual awards include being named a three-time All-American and leading all NCAA players, male and female, in scoring in her junior season (29.1 points per game) and senior season (28.4).

Garrity Turini did her part to make it “rain threes.” In fact, she created a deluge. A fearless shot-maker, she could drain it from long distance but was more than willing to drive to the hoop when she had the opening.

In May of her senior year, her outstanding basketball resumé earned her an invitation to try out for the New York Liberty in the fledgling Women’s National Basketball Association. But by that time, she’d returned to the softball diamond, where she was a four-year starter on the Clark varsity as a shortstop. Basketball was less of a priority.

“I hadn’t picked up a basketball since March, and I’d already jumped into softball,” she recalls. “There really wasn’t the hype around the WNBA at that time that there is now, but I do think it would have been a great experience.”

Today, Garrity Turini is a sixth-grade teacher in her hometown of Clinton, Massachusetts, and has coached middle school and junior varsity teams. Her sister, Marissa Garrity ’00, who scored 1,607 points as a Clark basketball player, coaches the Clinton girls’ varsity team.

Garrity Turini is looking forward to joining her fellow scorers at Saturday’s ceremony.

“It feels so long ago,” she says. “But it also feels like yesterday.”

Clark Men’s Basketball 1,000-Point Scorers

Clark Women’s Basketball 1,000-Point Scorers