A Scoring Spectacle: The 1992 Record-Breaking NCAA Basketball Showdown Between Troy State vs. DeVry

Talking about points in basketball, they’re merely the accumulated score through field goals and free throws. Sure, many games have been played in the NCAA, but there exists only one gilded chapter that rules to be the highest scoring to date, the 1992 Troy State vs. DeVry men’s basketball game. It’s also the game that has established several unbreakable records.

Averaging 121 points per game, Troy State was the leading team all across Division II. In 1991-92, the Trojans set an NCAA record of attempting 1303 3-point shots and also scoring 444 of them. On the 12th of January 1992, Troy State University brutally beat down DeVry University with a score of 258-141. Let’s learn a little bit more about this historic matchup.

NCAA’s highest-scoring basketball game

Raining buckets back-to-back, the Troy State Trojans played in a track-meet style that would wear out the opponent team eventually. And, once their opponents get tired, the Trojans would set on an all-round and never-ending pursuit, whether it’s on the defensive or offensive. For them, ‘no shot was a bad shot’. Moreover, ‘the quicker the attempt the better’.

For Troy State, the 1991-92 season was the next to last year as an NCAA Division II school before their transition to Division I. Under the guidance of their head coach Don Maestri, the Trojans followed the philosophy of attempting steals on every possession made by the opponents. Moreover, if a player misses a steal, they would allow the opponent to score as long as they do it quickly.

Now, as the game started off, the Trojans had hooped their first basket within just 54 seconds. However, they had scored only 15 points after the first 3 minutes of the game, despite their feverish speed. The momentum then settled steadily, and soon the Trojans surpassed the 100-point mark with just 3:14 remaining till the buzzer.

They scored 21 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes. Interestingly with their first-half score of 123-53, they broke their own NCAA single-half record from the previous year’s matchup with DeVry, where they had scored 103 points in the first half itself.

A team so dedicated, that everyone was on point, as guard Tommy Davis puts it, “When you see one guy hitting, then everybody gets in the act. It becomes contagious.” As the game moved forward to the second half, they had already scored 26 points in the initial three minutes, taking the score to 149 points.

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It’s like the Troy State team was on fire, as it was breaking its own records that day.

Terrifying Trojans

In the second half only, Chris Greasham elevated the team score to 189, breaking its own NCAA single-game scoring record of 187. Moreover, the unstoppable Trojans crossed the 200-point mark. As this occurred, something very interesting happened alongside.

Since the scoreboard was not built to display a 200-plus points score, hence it showed incorrect digits. As a quick and hilarious solution, the scoreboard operator started counting the score at zero. Now, on their trail of beating their own record, they updated their minutes-old record of 123 with 135 points. In addition, the Trojans’ 30 3-pointers in the second quarter was higher than their own NCAA all-time full-game record of 25.

Doubling down the 3-point shot score record to 51, plus their 109 3-point attempts record stayed unbeatable for 31 seasons until it was broken down in December 2022. The gameplay so strong, that it is still standing at the top as the highest-scoring basketball game in the NCAA.

Notably, 10 out of 11 Trojans scored in double-figures each, leading Troy State to a record-breaking score. Most importantly, the home crowd cheered for their team which boosted them to go that extra mile, as Trojans’ Jack Smith said, “It seems almost impossible to hit 200 points in a game. It’s a great, great feeling. The crowd played a big part in us getting the record. Their hollering gave us the energy we needed.”

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All it left was the lasting effect of a wonderful game, inspiring today’s young athletes about how to become invincible through tactical hard work, and a will to keep moving on forward.