Charleston High School senior guard Tyler Oakley started Thursday’s game against Rantoul 27 points away from breaking the all-time program career scoring record.  

When Oakley made a three-pointer in the first quarter, it electrified a nearly packed Baker Gym. 

However, Rantoul shut down this season’s top Trojan scorer for most of the game.

Charleston turned to senior guards Hudson Meister and Alex Matheny as alternative scoring options, but their combined 24 points wasn’t enough, as Charleston lost to Rantoul 58-52.  

The Trojans (4-19, 0-5) have lost 11 of their last 12 games, and have lost to Rantoul (7-11, 0-2) for the first time since 2017.  

Oakley finished with nine points, three of which came from a straight-away three with 4.5 seconds remaining to cut the Charleston deficit to five. 

“After that first quarter only having three points, I was just trying to focus on getting the team the win,” Oakley said. “Obviously, I would have loved to get it tonight, but I have a couple more games after this, so I have more opportunities.” 

The current record of 1,462 career points is held by Derrick Landrus, a former Charleston High School student from 1987 to 1991.  

His point total exploded during his senior year when he led all of Illinois in scoring and averaged 31.2 points per game. Landrus went on to play college basketball at Eastern Illinois from 1992 to 1996, where he averaged double figures in his final three years as a Panther.  

Defensively, Rantoul rarely had just one player guarding Oakley, which allowed players like Meister and Matheny to get a few more open shots.  

“They stepped up tremendously,” Oakley said.  

The Eagles drained a three-pointer with seconds to go in the first half for one of the four ties of the game. The halftime score was 26-26, and it marked the first time all season the Trojans were tied with an opponent going into halftime.  

Rantoul got hot from range to start the second half and took the lead by outscoring Charleston 18-9 in the third quarter.  

The Eagles kickstarted the half with four three-pointers in their first five possessions of the quarter. 

Head coach Colin McInerny said that Rantoul junior Jon Couture drew the attention of Charleston’s zone defense, which left the Trojans vulnerable to three-point shots.  

“We were kind of playing catchup from then,” McInerny said. “It’s something I gotta work on. Maybe we get out of that a little bit earlier.”  

Charleston adjusted defensively after that and didn’t allow the Eagles to make another three-pointer for the rest of the game. 

The Trojans were faced with their largest deficit of the night by the end of the third quarter, as Rantoul opened up a 44-35 lead. Back-to-back three-pointers from Matheny made it a 50-48 game with about two minutes to go, but that was as close as Charleston could get.  

Matheny is a welcome addition back to the Trojan rotation, said McInerny, as he returned from injury last week. 

“He’s kind of getting back to full speed,” McInerny said. “He gives us another great option off the bench.” 

A packed student section in a nearly packed gym may not have witnessed a record-breaking moment, but they did witness a game with five lead changes.  

“[The crowd] was top tier,” Meister said. “Every shot, every rebound and even fouls. Everyone was getting into it. Even the little kids you could hear. So, it was awesome.” 

Charleston’s next game is an Apollo Conference game at home against Effingham on Jan. 30. Oakley will go into that game 18 points away from breaking the record. 

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. 

Gabe Newman can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].