Tuesday night
ESPN and other media outlets informed the world of a basketball player by the name of Jack Taylor. Taylor a 5-foot-10 sophomore playing for Division III Grinnell scored 138 points in one game as his team beat Faith Baptist Bible 179-104.
I posted this on my FB
page and one of my followers asked to compare Taylor's performance to other great one game performances.
I will first start with Taylor's record breaking game because nobody has scored more than 138 points in one game. In the first two games of the season for
Grinnell , Taylor scored 19 and 28. Then last night he shoots the ball 108 times. I'm pretty sure the coach stole his game plan from an episode of
Hey Arnold .
- Jack Taylor's box score
- Field Goals 52-108
- 3-pointers 27-71
- Free Throws 7-10
In fact both teams employed this game plan. In the game last night David Larson of Faith Baptist scored 70 points. Any other night he is the star and getting all the love. Not last night.
Scoring lots of points for Grinnell isn't something new however. According to a New York Daily News article, they have led the nation in scoring 17 of the last 19 years and 3-point shooting 15 of the last 19.
Other memorable 100 point games:
- Wilt Chamberlin (100)
- Bevo Francis (116,113)
- Paul Arizin (100)
- Frank Selvy (100)
- Epiphanny Prince (113)
- Cheryl Miller (105)
- Lisa Leslie (101)
- Danny Heater (135)
So what are some of the other great performances in the history of basketball? I will first start with what is the best in my opinion, Wilt Chamberlin.
On March 2, 1962 Chamberlin set the NBA single game record, scoring 100 points against the New York Knicks.
- Chamberlin's box score:
- Field goals 36-63
- Free throws 28-32
Not only was the 100 points a recrod but he also set records for field goals, free throws, points in the first quarter (31) and at halftime (59). The most amazing part was the free throwing shooting of Chamberlin. According to NBA.com, Chamberlin was .511 from the line in his career.
Chamberlin also gets credit for playing against professional players. Scoring 100 or more is hard no matter where but I give him more credit.
The next player on the list is Clarance Franklin Francis but most called him Bevo Francis. In 1953 he set the scoring record scoring
116 for Rio Grande College (Ohio). In Francis' record setting game, Rio Grande won 150-85 over Ashland College (Kentucky).
In the game Francis made 47 field goals and 22 free throws.
It was initially honored by the NCAA as the new record. Then coaches complained the level of competition they were playing. The NCAA then decided to not count it as a record since Ashland was a Junior College. Rio Grande may have been playing a Junior College but Francis did it again a year later. For a player to score more than a 100 points in a game more than once. Give the man some respect.
The following season he scored 113 against Hillsdale, another Junior College but this time the record was allowed.
There was also one more player who scored 100 that didn't count according to the NCAA. Paul Arizin scored 100 for Villanova but like Francis it was against a Junior College.
There is one player that has scored 100 points at the Division I level.
Frank Selvy scored 100 points for Furhman University against Newberry College. Selvy unlike most of the players mentioned could have gone to a bigger school than Furhman. Selvy grew up in Kentucky and all he wanted to do is play for the Wildcats. There was only one problem, he didn't have an offer from them.
He had an offer from Furhman and he took it. Then he played in All-Star game and Adolph Rupp came calling but it was too late.
Scoring for Selvy his entire college career wasn't anything out of the ordinary. His senior year he averaged 41.7 points per game, a record until a man by the name of Pistol Pete came along. It was also in his senior year that he reached the century mark.
The game against Newberry was memorable for a couple reasons for Selvy.
In the same SI article mentioned earlier Selvy said, "This was the first college game my mother saw me play."
In front of his mom for the first time, all Selvy did was score 100 points. At the end of the first quarter he scored 24 points and was on a good pace. In the second quarter the pace slowed down, only scoring 13 and going to halftime with 37.
Following the Hey Arnold method of passing it to one player, by the end of the third he had 63 points. Selvy continued to catch fire in the fourth but with seconds remaining he was two points shy. He threw up a 40-foot shot, if it goes in 100 points. If it doesn't he ends up with 98, remember no 3-point line at this time.
Since I said he scored 100, you know what happened. Selvy made it and ended the game 41-of-66.
Hitting the century mark has even been done by high school basketball players. The most recent was in 2006 by a female named Epiphanny Prince of Murry Bergtraum High School. Prince ended the game with
113 points, breaking the previous record. That record was 105 points and held by Cheryl Miller.
Prince and any future female is lucky because this record could very easily be untouchable.
Lisa Leslie scored
101 points in the first half. The opponent didn't come out of the locker room after halftime.
The all-time high school record for scoring in one game 135. In 1960
Danny Heater scored 135 as his team won 173-43.
The list of players at every level who have hit the century mark goes on and on. These are just a few but there are many many more.
The question with all this is, should teams really play like this? In most of the games, one team is killing the other.
What is your opinion on should teams keep letting one player score in blowouts?
*information gathered from ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Grinnell, New York Times, Yahoo, NBA, YouTube and any other links posted.
