Giesler

SLIPPERY ROCK — Brian Giesler is a walking contradiction on the basketball court.

The Slippery Rock High senior is a tall, physical presence inside who has a silky smooth — and deadly accurate — outside shot.

He's a star who acts more like a role player. He's a scorer who values rebounds, assists and wins more than anything else.

“He's a winner,” said Slippery Rock High boys basketball coach Phil Bushre. “He'll go off for a big scoring night, but if we don't win, he's not happy. He doesn't care if he scores a point or not, as long as we win.”

But the 6-foot-3 guard has scored a lot of points for the Rockets, reaching 1,000 points in his career in a road loss against Oil City recently.

He became the sixth player in Slippery Rock boys basketball history to reach the milestone, joining Ben and Adam Zajac, Steve Beatty, Jim McConnell and Shane Meling.

Giesler said he knew the milestone was coming. While it was important to him, winning trumps all.

That's why when George Junior Republic held him to four points Thursday, Giesler was happy because the Rockets ended a five-game losing streak with a two-point win.

“It was great, especially because we needed a win,” Giesler said. “I'd rather win than score.”

George Junior played a diamond-and-one defense on Giesler, trying to render him moot.

But Giesler still made an impact with a slew of rebounds and assists as teammate Alec McDeavitt scored 31 points.

“(Thursday) was a perfect example of what Brian is all about,” Bushre said. “George Junior took him away as a scorer, but he set screens for Alec and set up his teammates. I don't know many other 1,000-point scorers who would do that.”

Giesler spent the offseason working on the other parts of his game: rebounding, dribbling and passing. While he excelled at those skills last season to go along with his scoring punch, he felt he could get better.

What has resulted is his best all-around season.

“I knew we lost our two top rebounders from last season,” Giesler said. “I needed to be better at that to help the team.”

Still, Giesler is averaging 16.4 points per game after scoring nearly 20 points per contest last season.

Even when teams aren't double-teaming him, Giesler is very judicious with his shot selection. Very rarely does he force a wild 3-pointer or an off-balance jumper.

“The thing people don't realize about Brian is just how high of a percentage he shoots,” Bushre said. “He only shoots about 15 times a game. There aren't many 1,000-point scorers who take fewer shots than that.”

Whether he takes one shot or 15 in a game, Giesler's goal is the same: to get the Rockets to the playoffs.

“Hopefully we've gotten over the hump,” Giesler said.