Tyler Crum could have been a great distributor. But he was too good of a finisher.

"When I first came here, Tyler was a freshman playing point guard for our JV team and was pretty good at it," said Lehighton basketball coach Rich Oertner. "But when he practiced against the varsity, you could tell he was also someone who knew how to score."The more we saw him, the more we realized we needed to get him to a position where he could take advantage of his knack for finishing."So instead of playing point guard and setting up his teammates for shots, Crum became a player who gets set up to take shots.Oertner moved him to the small forward position and brought him up to the varsity halfway through his freshman year.It turned out to be a very good move.Crum never left the starting lineup and during his four-year career with the Indians has validated his coach's confidence in his scoring ability.Last week, the Lehighton senior reached the 1,000-point mark in his career.Needing 12 points entering last Tuesday's game against Jim Thorpe, Crum wasted little time in reaching the milestone, drilling a corner three-pointer with 5:31 left in the second quarter to hit the mark.He enters this week with 1,011 career points."Scoring 1,000 points in my career was always a goal I had," said Crum. "So it feels great to be able to accomplish it."I've been very fortunate in my career. I've had great teammates and great coaches who made it possible."Oertner said Crum's success stems from his versatility and athleticism."Tyler can hurt you is so many ways," said Oertner. "He has great range so he can knock down the three-pointer if you don't challenge him, but if you come out and try to deny the three, he is extremely good at taking the ball to the basket."We run a lot of plays for him because he is such a great athlete. But he can also create points for himself by beating his man or pounding the offensive boards. He just knows how to score."As a freshman, Crum had 113 points and 10 threes. Those numbers increased to 331 points and 24 threes as a sophomore. As a junior he had 326 points and 35 triples. This season, he has 243 points and 26 threes through 17 games.At the pace he is on, Crum has a chance to put up the best offensive numbers of his career.Oertner expects that to happen."One thing about Tyler is that he always gets better and better offensively as the season goes on," said Oertner. "He basically comes right from the football field to the basketball court without a break."So it takes him a little while to find his jump shot and to get his basketball legs. He was shooting just over 20 percent from three-point range early in the season, but he is around 45 percent now."After reaching the milestone in a blowout victory against Jim Thorpe, Crum talked about another goal that he wants to achieve."This win clinched a District 11 spot for us," said Crum. "Getting my 1,000th point is a nice individual goal, but we still have some team goals out there."We want to have success in the postseason. We have a number of seniors on the team so this is our last chance. We want to put together a good run."In other words, Tyler Crum wants to finish strong. Something that coach Rich Oertner discovered he could do very well a few years ago.