Union's Lucas Bowser hugs his mother in celebration of his 1,000th career point during the Golden Knights' season finale recently at Moniteau.

RIMERSBURG — Some high school basketball players develop their physical talents, others their leadership skills.

Union’s Lucas Bowser has proved to be equally adept at both.

The Golden Knights’ junior forward achieved his 1,000th career point with a basket in the first quarter of Wednesday’s season finale against Moniteau, but Union coach Eric Mortimer knew before that Bowser was the total package.

“Lucas is an all-around good basketball player and he knows the game,” he said. “He’s a leader by example, gets along with all the players and the kids all like him.”

Bowser entered the game at Moniteau with 997 career points. The Golden Knights (8-14) knew they would not be competing in the District 9 playoffs.

Entering the offseason with the milestone behind him took a weight off of Bowser’s shoulders. He now has 1,013 points in his career.

“Three points never felt so far away,” he said. “Scoring 1,000 points was something I thought about since I was a little kid. I remember some players (at Union) getting there while I was growing up. It’s a special club and I wanted to be part of it.”

Bowser earned a spot in the starting lineup midway through his freshman season and averaged 8.8 points that year.

He has shown steady improvement since, scoring 14.1 points per game as a sophomore and 19.1 this season.

“I knew I had a bigger responsibility, especially since last year’s seniors graduated,” he said. “I worked hard over the summer because I wanted to be the best I could be for my teammates.”

Even with Bowser, who was one of the top scorers in all of District 9 this season, Union struggled this year. As a sophomore, he was an integral part of the Knights’ appearance in the district’s Class A semifinals.

“In most of our games this year, we’d have one bad quarter,” Bowser said. “In a lot of cases, it was the third quarter and that’s when we had most of our turnovers.”

Bowser said he “wants to go out with a bang next year.” That goal includes not only climbing Union’s all-time scoring list, but a return to team success.

“My teammates and I need to get in the weight room, work on ball-handling....do whatever it takes to get better,” he said.