Brontae Harris celebrates with his teammates after Cullman won this season's Mitch Smith Chevrolet Yule Tide Classic championship. The transfer is only 41 points away from tying Jared Hembree's county scoring record.

Brontae Harris is inching dangerously close to securing his place in local basketball history.

Heck if anyone knows precisely where it should be, though.

Three years in the county at Hanceville. One in the city at Cullman.

So where does that leave his 2,211 points?

That eye-popping total is only 41 away from Jared Hembree’s all-time scoring mark. But even if Harris surpasses 2,252 points sometime in the next week or so, will it really mean the record is his?

Because here’s the conundrum: Hembree’s standard was set at a single county school. He spent his high school days at Vinemont and Vinemont only.

Harris, however, moved from county to city just before his senior year. The program he now calls home has its own record book — which Lawson Schaffer sits atop with 1,848 career points — clearly separate from the one shared by seven of the county’s other schools.

But is that reason enough to not hand Harris the all-time title when he eventually earns it?

In short: No.

And here’s why.

If we’re talking solely about the county schools system, then Hembree would still be your man. But because Cullman High is legitimately located in Cullman County — contrary to popular and personal beliefs — there’s no reason to deny Harris the honor.

Cullman County = county = county record.

Love or hate my take, it’s the best I’ve got.

But it’s far from the only one that should be taken seriously. For that, I put in a call to Hembree, who admittedly hasn’t kept up much with Cullman’s sports scene since relocating to Livingston 12 years ago.

Hembree recalls hearing through the grapevine of a kid who said he planned on scoring 4,000 career points — that was indeed Harris, who shared the lofty goal with The Times after securing his 1,000th point as a sophomore — but otherwise had no intel on his soon-to-be successor before our conversation.

After hearing both sides of the debate, Hembree delivered his verdict. Sorry in advance to the folks hoping otherwise, but it wasn’t juicy and did little to stoke the city-county flames.

“That’s a lot of points whether he was in the county or city or wherever,” he said. “I don’t know how you classify that. I’m not the one that puts the label on everything. Either way, it’s a lot of points to me.”

Hembree put the finishing touches on his high prep production in the 2003 Class 3A state championship. Those days, the Eagles were still coached by Bobby Meyer, who just so happens to be Harris’ current commander at Cullman.

The final ended a three-year varsity run Hembree views as vital to his record-setting ways. Well, maybe a little circumstantial, too, considering some players aren’t called up to high school’s highest stage until their junior seasons and others earn the promotion as early as the seventh and eighth grades.

To Hembree, a player’s point potential boils down to number of games played, and he considers himself blessed to have packed so many into three winters at Vinemont.

Harris, for what it’s worth, has been a starter since his freshman year. Hembree technically was, too, but only after his ninth-grade season was officially complete. He said he only played a few minutes and probably only scored 10 points in that brief window.

Hembree piled on the bulk of his points at West Alabama the same way he did at Vinemont — with deadly accuracy from long range. He left the Tigers in 2007 with their career records in 3-pointers made (371) and attempted (913) — the next-closest players are at 186 and 529 — as well as their third-highest point total (1,247).

“I’d like to think I was pretty well-rounded, but yeah, I think I was more known for being a shooter,” Hembree said. “That was kind of my name in college. When you’ve got 10, 11 black kids on a team and one white boy comes in, you tend to know what he’s out there for.”

In addition to his 3-point prowess, Hembree was also pretty fierce at the free-throw line. According to the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s online records, he still has the state’s highest percentage for a career (89.3). He’s also third (91) and fourth (90.7) in the single-season ranks.

The leader in the latter category is none other than Cullman’s Swalve, who went 95.1 percent from the charity stripe last year.

But let’s get back to the topic — breaking down the city-county aspect of the local all-time scoring mark.

It’s been fun making cases for both sides, but let’s be honest. None of it matters. Not a single iota.

Triston Chambers is to thank for that.

While we’ve been discussing the record, the Cold Springs’ superstar and Division I prospect continues to work tirelessly to make it his own. After Tuesday’s 42-point outburst — and a smooth 53-point showing against Holly Pond earlier this season — Chambers is already sitting pretty around 1,850 points.

By the way, he’s just a junior.

So once you take the top spot, Brontae, enjoy it while you can. Don’t feel bad for overthrowing Hembree, either. After more than a decade, he’s more than ready to hand over the throne.

“I knew it’d get broken one day. I didn’t know who or when or by how much,” Hembree said. “But I hope they enjoy it and enjoy working as hard as I did and having as much fun playing as I did.”