Perry ? Perry-Lecompton High senior Shannon Wilson has put up some gaudy numbers during her career.

For instance, 44 points in one game, an average of nearly 20 points a game this season and her school record of 1,330 career points grows each time she steps on the court.

Still, the three-time All-Kaw Valley League performer hasn’t helped the Kaws post big wins, which eats at her relentlessly.

“I would gladly score 10 points a game and win,” she said. “I would do anything for the team, because that’s what important. It’s very frustrating. I get frustrated every day thinking about it.”

The Kaws (4-14) have lost five straight games. If they win their next four, that would match the most Wilson ever has won in a season.

“If you put her on a (Topeka) Hayden, or even like an Ottawa or a Jeff West, a team like that, she would be a huge piece of the puzzle,” P-L coach Kevin Bost said. “She’s a championship player, no doubt.”

At 5-foot-9, Wilson is the Kaws’ tallest player and their lone scoring threat, which makes it easy for opposing teams to draw up plans to stop her.

She has seen all the gimmick defenses and lots of double-teams, but the strategies don’t always work. Wilson can stroke the ball from outside or take it inside against taller people. Once she gets rolling, the team must be hard to stop, right?

“Not necessarily,” P-L senior Heidi Wege said. “There have been games where Shannon has scored 44 points and we’ve lost.

“But we’re glad she scores because none of us can score consistently like she does.”

The 44 points — 37 of which came in the second half — were scored Feb. 11 during a 73-65 loss to Basehor-Linwood. The last time P-L won, Wilson scored 38 points in a 58-53 victory against Valley Falls, so it’s not as if she scores a lot just in losses.

She scores a lot all the time.

“That’s what people don’t understand,” Bost said. “She gets special coverage every night. She’s gonna get all the attention and she’s still gonna get hers.”

At the start of the season, Bost set up a balanced offense. After the Kaws lost their first seven games, he switched it to get the ball in Wilson’s hands more often.

P-L responded by winning four of its next five games, including a 61-55 win against Oskaloosa where Wilson broke the school scoring record.

“My friends have been very unselfish,” Wilson said. “When I’m open, they’ve gotten me the ball. It means a lot to me, what they do.”

Since breaking the record, the Kaws are 1-5, though defenses still haven’t slowed her down.

“It can be rough on her because she doesn’t want to be known as a ball hog,” Bost said. “And I don’t want to be the type of coach that says, ‘Shannon, Shannon, Shannon.’ But she’s a scorer and she’s what we need. It’d be like the Chiefs not using Priest Holmes.”

Wilson wants to play hoops in college, and has gotten looks from Baker University, Sterling College and Allen County Community College.

Bost, who used to coach NAIA basketball, thinks she’d be a perfect fit at Baker.

“At the NAIA, she’s gonna come in the first year and really have a chance to be a first-team all conference player,” Bost said.

Still, the Kaws have to worry about the rest of this season. They play host to Santa Fe Trail tonight and finish with home games against Mill Valley and Kansas City Piper.

If P-L loses all three, it’ll still hurt, but Wilson said playing with lifelong friends like Wege and Jamie Amerine this year has been worth the losses.

“Winning is important, and we haven’t won a lot this year,” Wilson said. “But I couldn’t ask for a better year. We’ve had so much fun.”