Troy Celebrates Anniversary of Highest Scoring Basketball Game in NCAA History

Troy Celebrates Anniversary of Highest Scoring Basketball Game in NCAA History

TROY, Ala. – Twenty-nine years have passed since the final horn sounded in Sartain Hall signifying the end of the highest scoring basketball game in NCAA history. Those 29 years have not diminished the spectacle put forth by Troy on Jan. 12, 1992, when the Trojans scored 258 points in a 40-minute game, the most by a team at any NCAA level, in a 258-141 victory over DeVry.

Troy University Sports Hall of Fame inductee Terry McCord led Troy with 41 points after connecting on 16-of-26 shots from the floor and 9-of-14 from 3-point range, while Brian Simpson hit a game-high 11 3-pointers to finish with 38 points. Four Trojans – YES FOUR – closed out the game with 29 points, while three Troy players posted double-doubles in the game.

The combined 399 points are the most by two teams combined in NCAA history at all divisions, however you will not see it in the NCAA record book as it only recognizes games between two NCAA teams for combined records.

Inside the Numbers:
• NCAA record for most points in a game (258) – previous record was 187 set by Troy in 1991
• NCAA record for most points in a half, twice (135 points in the second half broke the record of 123 set by Troy State in the first half)
• NCAA record for most field goals in a game (102) – previous record was 79
• NCAA record for most field goals attempted in a game (190)
• NCAA field goals for most 3-pointers in a game (51) – previous record was 25
• NCAA record for most players on one team to make a 3-point field goal (10)
• NCAA Division II record for most assists in a game (65)
• The two teams combined to score one point every six seconds
• Troy had 28 slam dunks
• DeVry attempted 0 free throws
• The Trojans committed only one foul
• All 11 Troy players scored and 10 finished in double figures
• Troy averaged 121 points per game in 1992, setting a new NCAA record

The Following Story Appeared in the Birmingham News and was Written by Troy Alum Kevin Scarbinsky

Troy State 258, DeVry Institute 141.

Repeat.

Troy State 258, DeVry Institute 141.

Do not adjust your newspaper. Do not call Ripley. This is the actual score of an actual college basketball game played Sunday afternoon in Troy State's Sartain Hall. Believe it or not.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution didn't believe it. A Troy State sports information assistant called in the score, and the paper thought it was a prank call.

Don Maestri was there, and he's not sure he believes it. The Troy State coach unleashed his brand of run-and-shoot
basketball on the world two years back, and every chamber in his gun was loaded Sunday. Fifteen NCAA records were tied or broken, including the most points scored, most field goals attempted (190 by Troy), most field goals made (102 by Troy), and most points in a half.

Troy State set a record with 123 points in the first half and broke it with 135 in the second half.

"It was a big, big, big day," Maestri said. "It hasn't sunk in yet. We never dreamed it could be 258 points."

But the Division II Trojans, on their way toward Division I, were shooting at 200 points. They set an NCAA record for all divisions last season when they beat DeVry, 187-117, to top Loyola Marymount's record by a single point. DeVry plays the same way as Troy, the same way Loyola Marymount did under former coach Paul Westhead - with no conscience and an itchy trigger finger. Except DeVry, a NAIA school in Atlanta best known for its television ads, plays the running game with fewer players.

Troy players and fans circled Sunday's return meeting with the Hoyas on the calendar. When DeVry got to the gym Sunday just 20 minutes before tipoff with just seven players, the stage was set.

"If the record could be broken, we were going to go ahead and try to do it," Maestri said. "It's a credit to these kids. It was a great show."

You like points? They had points, 399 all told, one every six seconds. Terry McCord scored 41 for Troy, followed by Brian Simpson with 37, Jack Smith, Dandrea Evans and Paul Bryan with 29 each. Eleven Trojans played, and 10 of them scored in double figures. The one who didn't, captain Andy Davis, scored the game's first basket and did not score again, content to rebound and throw outlet passes.

At halftime Troy led 123-53. The 200-point mark, which no college team had ever approached before, fell with 7:37 to play when Steve Hunt came free on the break, pulled up at the top of the key and buried a 3-pointer.

"It'll be in the history books," Hunt said. "It was a goal of ours since the beginning of the season. It's not that we wanted to score 200 to embarrass anybody. We just wanted to prove we could score 200."

It was a three-for-all all the way as Troy shot 109 3-pointers for the game - and made 51. Ten of the 11 Trojans made at least one trey.

"So many 3s," Maestri said. "I don't know if that can happen again."

The Trojans threw down 28 dunks. They grabbed 94 rebounds, to 46 for DeVry, and took advantage of 44 DeVry turnovers.

Troy took just three free throws the entire night and made all three. DeVry did not take a single free throw, another record. It took a squad of seven sports information workers 57 minutes to compile the final box score.

"I've never seen anything like this," DeVry coach George Trawick said. "The score this year is unbelievable."

Troy University Athletics

Troy Celebrates Anniversary of Highest Scoring Basketball Game in NCAA History

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