Julius Wilson was honored to be part of a family milestone.

The junior scored a game-high 23 points Wednesday night to lead L’Anse Creuse North to a 50-34 victory over Utica and the 300th career basketball coaching win for the Crusaders’ head coach Kurt Wilson, who is Julius’ grandfather.

“I’m proud of him,” the younger Wilson said after the Crusaders improved to 2-1 in the Macomb Area Conference White Division and 9-3 overall.

“He’s been coaching for as long as I can remember, before I was even born. I’m glad to be on his team. It’s something special. To be part of his 300th means something to me and the family as well.”

Kurt Wilson, who played at Lake Shore, started his coaching career at Mount Clemens, where he coached the girls team for three seasons before taking over the boys.He then coached the boys at South Lake and won more than 120 games there before moving to L’Anse Creuse North last season. Both of his sons are coaches in Macomb County, too, with Kurt at currently at South Lake and Darius leading Eastpointe.

His first Crusaders team won 16 games to put Wilson at 291.

“You don’t get (to 300) without good kids, talented kids, good student-athletes,” Kurt Wilson said. “I want to say thank you to everybody, from my first year to my present year. I’d like to say thank you to every administrator, every athletic director, every player.”

Wilson said a constant helpful presence for all 300 victories has been Teresa, his wife of 38 years. They met more than 40 years ago.

“I have been lucky and fortunate to have a wife and family that have been with me,” Kurt said. “She has seen the ups and the downs. It means so much.”

Wilson is proud to be the first African American coach from Macomb County to win 300 games in the sport.

“I thank God,” he said. “And I thank God for L’Anse Creuse North. Everyone does everything that we’re supposed to do to help these kids.”

Utica closed the game on a scoring drought of more than 10 minutes, spanning the entire fourth quarter.

Hayden Hirmiz, who led the Chieftains with 12 points, made a 3-pointer with 2:58 left in the third to give the visitors a 34-30 lead, but Utica didn’t score the rest of the game and fell to 1-2 and 3-8.

“We couldn’t score,” Chieftains coach Dave Hinkle said. “In the first half we drove the ball better. In the second half, we had open looks. Tired legs? I don’t know. We’re struggling to score.”

Utica averaged 44.2 points per game in its 10 contests. That was the lowest average in the White Division and lower than any Red or Blue team.

“We can’t score the ball,” Hinkle said. “We had driving lanes but didn’t drive the ball (in the second half). We lost focus in the second half. It really started when we didn’t pick up back-to-back on transition defense. They hit a pull-up jumper and a transition 3. We had no communication. That started a spiral, and then when you don’t score you can’t win.

“I thought our defense was really good. I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win the game. We’ve got to keep working at it.”

Utica led 26-23 at halftime.

“It was a close game at the half, and our coaches told us to keep our foot on the gas, to keep working to come out with the ‘Dub,’” Julius Wilson said. “We had a tough game against Fitzgerald (on Jan. 9); we didn’t get the result we wanted, so we knew this game was going to be something different.”

“Our scoring picked up, and our defense picked up,” Kurt Wilson said.

Julius Wilson and Nehvir Njoku got the Crusaders’ offense perking in the deciding stretch of the game.

They had three points apiece as L’Anse Creuse North scored the final six of the third quarter for a 36-34 lead.

Greg Houston’s basket and Wilson’s 3-pointer in the first minute-plus of the fourth quarter pushed the lead to 41-34.

Then Wilson made a tip-in and two perimeter shots and Ricky Sparks made two baskets, including one that was set up by a pass from Njoku, to close the scoring.

Caston Rissman had 11 points for Utica.

“Credit to LCN,” Hinkle said. “They dialed it up when they had to — got in passing lanes, made steals.”

Both teams play today — L’Anse Creuse North at Romeo and Utica at Eisenhower.