KINGWOOD, W.Va — When the winter turns cold on the mountain in Preston County, there is one Knight that seems to heat up on the basketball court. Jimmy Galusky, one of the state’s leading scorers this year, is pumping in 29 points a game and has been on a tear of late. The shooting guard poured in 35 in a win against Parkersburg and 34 in the Knights’ latest victory over John Marshall.
With the weather being so unpredictable, games were limited for Preston over the holiday season.
“It’s hard to get a lot of games in this time of year, it’s really hard to stay in a groove,” Galusky said. “I have to go to the high school as much as I can to keep my shot in flow.”
Those gaudy numbers should come as no surprise to anyone around the state as Galusky has averaged around 20 points a night over the past two years. With defenses keying in on his ability to knock down the 3 (shooting 40 percent), Galusky worked on other ways to score.
“I’ve had to change a lot this year, I’ve usually tried to stay behind the arc and shoot a lot of 3-pointers,” Galusky said. “I’ve kind of changed to be more of a slasher this year and mix the 3’s into my game.”
Galusky, yet another product coming out of Preston High who can score the basketball, gives a lot of credit to his head coach Barry Sanders. The term up in Kingwood for the Knights’ offense is “Barry Ball” and Galusky has sure found his spot in the offense.
“Barry Ball is used a lot up here, he likes to slow the game down,” Galusky said. “We like to spread it out and get a good shot on offense, coming off a lot of screens.”
The senior is in his fourth year on the varsity team with the Knights and will go over the 1,000 point mark in the coming weeks. Though he only played in three games his freshman year, he says that he gained useful knowledge from the squad that ended up 22-3.
“When I was a freshman, I kind of went through the stages,” Galusky said. “We had a good team, so I learned a lot from the older guys, which has helped me in a lot of ways.”
The Knights, meanwhile, are now in the Big 10 conference, but the goals of the team haven’t changed.
“It would always be awesome for a high school guy to go down to Charleston and win a state title,” Galusky said. “Right now we’re working on that sectional title, and then regionals and on from there.”
Galusky has already committed to play baseball at WVU after he graduates in the spring. As for the thought of a potential basketball scholarship elsewhere?
“Basketball would be nice, but right now baseball is where I’m at,” he said.