NAIA hoops player nets 100 points

A matchup Tuesday between Wayland Baptist University and Southwest Adventist University turned into the game of the century.

That’s because a player in that game scored 100 points all by himself.

The triple-digit outburst was delivered by J.J. Culver, an older brother of Jarrett Culver, the Minnesota Timberwolves rookie and sixth overall draft pick who led Texas Tech to the final game of last season’s NCAA Tournament.

J.J. Culver’s feat came in an NAIA game as he hit 34 of 62 shots, including 12 of 33 from three-point range, and made 20 of 27 freethrow attempts.

Culver, a six-foot-five senior guard for Wayland Baptist, located in Plainview, Texas, accounted for all but 24 of his team’s points in the Pioneers’ 124-60 win over Southwest Adventist. Culver’s total was the second highest in NAIA history, behind only the 113 scored by Clarence (Bevo) Francis of Ohio’s Rio Grande against Michigan’s Hillsdale in 1954.

“We always script our first couple of plays and J.J. scored on the first three or four. The guys realized he was hot and kept going to him,” said Wayland coach Ty Harrelson (via wbuathletics.com).

The NCAA single-game record for most points by one player is 138, scored by Jack Taylor of Division III Grinnell College in 2012. The record for most points against a Division I program was set in 1991 when U.S. International’s Kevin Bradshaw dropped 72 on Loyola Marymount.

Wilt Chamberlain authored the NBA’S most legendary single-game scoring feat by reaching 100 points in 1962 as his Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169-147. Kobe Bryant has the second-place mark at 82 points, scored for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, while Chamberlain also has the third-highest total of 78, scored against the Lakers in 1961.