Division III School Scores 201 Points in Single Game

I'll let that title sink in.

201 points.

Compared to the opponent's 78. Which is still a lot. But it's not 201.

201 is 100 points, plus another 101. From the same team. In the same game. All during the regulation 40 minutes of college basketball. No overtime here (obviously).

So many things must have happened in this game.

Start by looking at the coach, first and foremost. His team, Lincoln University, scored 123 more points than the opponent. So right there, your margin of victory is more points than most college programs score in a game in their entire existence. For every point Lincoln's opponent, Ohio State-Marion, scored, Lincoln recorded 2.58. The only way this could possibly have happened, aside from Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain and Tim Duncan playing against poor Ohio-State Marion while in their primes, is that the Lincoln coach pressed the entire game, buzzer to buzzer.

While I've heard rumors that verify my suspicions, I'm still waiting to hear that Lincoln's athletic director has dismissed the coach. The guy violated some of the most sacred principles in sports, and everyone involved in education and athletics across the country should be furious. You don't steal up by 8, you don't throw Hail Marys up 21 with 30 seconds left, and you don't press up by 20. Even if we assume the Lincoln coach is incapable of human feeling (not hard to imagine, if you ever had a coach) and even if we award the coach an extra 20 point cushion ... he won by 123. ONE-HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THREE POINTS. At some point, he must have thought, "Hey, we might be a lock to win this thing." If Ohio State-Marion hasn't planned an elaborate attack on Lincoln's mascot already, they need to.

But the coach didn't score all those points; the players did. Sami Wylie hit an NCAA-record 21 three-pointers in the game, en route to scoring 69. Chucking 21 three's, let alone hitting 21, is a feat in itself. But doing so while up 70 in the second half, shooting without passing just to get all these shots off before the game ends? Somewhere, Kobe and AI are smiling.

Lincoln managed to break several records with their scoring binge. They shattered the D-III scoring mark for a single game, previously set by the University of Redlands when they scored 172 in January 2005. They set a new record for largest margin of victory. Wylie broke the record for most three's in a D-III game. And the team set a new record for throwing up the most pointless and selfish shots every 36 seconds (which is how often they'd have to shoot to score 201 if every single shot was worth three points).

Unfortunately, Lincoln failed to break the all-time scoring record for a single game, held by Division II Troy at 258 points. So Lincoln still has something to shoot for.

Oh, goody.