When J.J. Culver was in high school at Lubbock Coronado, Wayland Baptist basketball coach Ty Harrelson was hesitant to offer him because of his offensive ability.
Now, four short years later, Culver became just the second player in NAIA history to score 100 points in a basketball game, joining Furman’s Frank Selvy in 1954. Culver reached the century mark in a 124-60 win over USCAA opponent Southwestern Adventist.
“I think I’m a little bit speechless still,” Wayland Baptist coach Ty Harrelson told Texas Basketball. “We normally set up a couple plays to start the game and we try to get him somewhere to get the ball. We set up the first couple of plays and he scored on all of them. It happened really fast.”
Harrelson isn’t kidding. Culver came into the game as the reigning Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Year and first-team All-American averaging more than 28 points on the young season. However, things got spicier than normal quickly.
Culver knocked down his first six shots and his first five free throws to get to 21 points barely five minutes into the game. Things just escalated from there. Culver scored the Pioneers’ first 42 points in 12 minutes on 24 shots. The school record, by the way, was 50. Culver had 51 at halftime.
“My teammates noticed and just kept saying to keep going, so I told them I would,” Culver said.
Culver isn’t an isolation player. He got most of his shots within the confines of the offense, running off screens and using cuts to find open opportunities. SWAU threw man-to-man at him before switching to zone, box-and-one, diamond-and-one, straight ball denial and double-teams. Nothing worked.
“They threw every defense at him that an individual player could possibly see and he still managed to do what he did,” Harrelson said. “Some of it still leaves me scratching my head. It was an unbelievable performance.”
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