Thursday, one of the longest-running records in college basketball could have been broken.
Instead, it was impossible to break through, even for one of the guards with the most points in the history of college basketball.
Pete Maravich’s record for most career points in Division I was set more than 50 years ago, and it was three points short of what Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis scored in his career.
Before his game against Youngstown State in the Horizon League tournament, Davis was 26 points away from becoming a college basketball legend. But he couldn’t beat Maravich’s record, and the Titans lost to the Penguins 71-66. He dropped 22 points.
Davis just scored 38 points against Purdue Fort-Wayne, but he had trouble getting into a rhythm on Thursday. He missed a few early shots. Youngstown State seemed determined to keep the talented guard from getting open shots. In the first 20 minutes, he only scored seven points.
In the second half, Davis started to find his groove. And for a while, it looked like he might get another chance since Detroit Mercy was in the lead for most of the game.
But the 6-foot-1 guard had trouble with fouls all night. Davis had to be stopped from going after a Penguins player as he left the court after his last-second shot went wide and hit the iron.
Davis had a lot going for him as he tried to break the record. Maravich scored 3,667 points in just 83 games (when there was no 3-point line), which is an average of 44.2 points per game. Davis, on the other hand, played in 144 games for the Titans.
Davis’s career average was 25.5 points per game, and so far in his last season, he is averaging 28.4 points per game. If Detroit Mercy doesn’t get into the tournament, which seems unlikely, he will have to settle for second place on the all-time list of men’s college basketball players.
Top Scorers In NCAA Basketball History
Here is a list of the top ten NCAA men’s basketball scorers of all time, with their records and when and where they went to college:
Pete Maravich, LSU (3,667 points in three seasons – 1967-70)
2. Antoine Davis, Detroit Mercy (3,664 points in five seasons – 2018-23)
3. Freeman Williams, Portland State (3,249 points in four seasons – 1974-78)
4. Chris Clemons, Campbell (3,225 points in four seasons – 2016-19)
5. Lionel Simmons, La Salle (3,217 points in four seasons – 1986-90)
6. Alphonso Ford, Mississippi Valley State (3,165 points in four seasons – 1989-93)
7. Doug McDermott, Creighton (3,150 points in four seasons – 2011-14)
8. Mike Daum, South Dakota State (3,067 points in four seasons – 2015-19)
9. Harry Kelly, Texas Southern (3,066 points in four seasons – 1979-83)
10. Keydren Clark, Saint Peter’s (3,058 points in four seasons – 2002-06)
