Mark Pope let Kerr Kriisa shoot all those late-game 3s in an effort to reach 1,000 career points

If you had some money on the Kentucky-Georgia State spread, you probably weren’t a huge fan of Kerr Kriisa‘s three missed three-pointers in the final 90 seconds of Friday night’s game. But there was a good reason the West Virginia transfer was firing off those shots with reckless abandon down the stretch.

Kriisa came into the Georgia State game with 988 points across his college career, now in its fifth year. In an effort to reach the 1,000-point mark, Kriisa checked in with 1:44 left needing five points to hit the milestone. He was quickly fouled and nailed a pair of free throws before turning into a gunner from deep.

Unfortunately, he missed all three of his attempts from deep in the final 1:19 of the game. Kriisa finished with nine points on the night and 997 points for his career. Something tells me he’ll hit that mark in the near future though.

But the coolest part? Fifth-year point guard Lamont Butler, who has already surpassed the 1,000-point threshold himself, told head coach Mark Pope of Kriisa’s situation, advising him to let the native of Estonia stay in the game so he could try to find those final three points. Pope obliged — even if some of Kriisa’s attempts were especially wild.

“Kerr has scored 997 points in his college basketball career. And I didn’t know that,” Pope said on postgame radio with Tom Leach. “And I’m gonna tell you what’s really special about our team. So we’re going out there, it’s the last 90 seconds of the game, and Lamont Butler — so we just finished the timeout — Lamont Butler gets up and he’s like, ‘Coach, Kerr is three points away from getting 1,000.’

“So our team, like the players, conspired to make sure that I knew that he could get to 1,000 tonight. It was actually super fun. All our guys were cheering like crazy for him. Demanding that he shoot it. And the one thing about Kerr: if you tell him to shoot the ball, he’s gonna shoot it.”

Pope reveals the reason Kerr launched three 3s in the final three possessions: he was three points away from 1000 career points. Lamont Butler made sure Pope knew so he would keep him in the game.

— Adam Stratton (@AdamStrattonKSR) November 30, 2024

Along with his nine points, Kriisa chipped in four assists, two rebounds, and one steal in just 16 minutes of action. He’ll have the chance to break 1,000 career points against Clemson next week.