Troy 258, Devry 141 - I was there!

I’m the only hometown sports editor who got to write a game story like this … Also, this year's Trojans win Thursday night to improve to 7-3 in Sunbelt.

“Three for me .. three, three, three, three, three, three, three …”

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Author’s note: It was 33 years ago that Troy State’s men’s basketball team stunned the Sports World by scoring a mind-boggling 258 points in a game against Devry Institute of Atlanta. The records included 51 made three-pointers.

Note: Troy native Stewart Vance’s famous advertising jingle falls 44 threes short.

I happened to be in Sartain Hall since, at the time, I was the sports editor of The Troy Messenger.

I remember that the game was played on a Sunday afternoon and that it had snowed a little the day before and a few patches of snow were still on the ground at tip-off. I later learned that DeVry’s NAIA team was late getting to the game and only arrived about 20 to 30 minutes before tip-off.

Even today, this is the most unforgettable sporting event I ever witnessed or covered as a journalist.

From the “Trojan Wall” website, I found one of the stories I filed two days later. (Since The Messenger didn’t have a Monday paper, Tuesday was the first publication date after the game.) I hope I didn’t shoot an air-ball on this historic story!

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BY BILL RICE, JR.

JANUARY 14, 1992

Here’s the Trojans who made history. Ten players hit three-pointers in the DeVry game. The only player in this photo who didn’t was former PLAS standout Brian Saunders .. but he didn’t play because he was a redshirt freshman that year. Current CHHS coach Tim Fayson hit a couple of threes as well as the game’s only free throws!

ESPN sportscaster Bob Ley called it a shooting drill where score was kept. Others simply called it amazing. Troy State 258, Devry Institute 141 was the final score in a basketball game destined to be preserved in the pages of both “the Guiness World Book of Records” and “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”

Sunday afternoon (Jan. 12th) in front of an estimated 2,000 fans, Troy State’s basketball team boldly went where no basketball team had gone before. No less than nine “official” NCAA records were shattered as Troy explored heretofore uncharted terrain, “the 200s.”

FIRST SECONDS WERE TOUGH

Troy’s assault on the record book started slowly.

“It was a little touch and go there early,” Troy’s Paul Bryan said with a laugh.

Indeed. It took Troy a full 54 seconds to register its first bucket. Troy’s Andy Davis did the honors on a put-back.

Ironically, it was Davis’ only shot and only points of the game. Although Davis had 12 rebounds and eight assists, he will likely one day be the answer to a local trivia question: Name the only TSU player not to score in double figures in the 1992 Troy-Devry game.

Not only did 10 Troy players register in double digits, eight finished with 20 or more points. (Every player except Davis hit at least one three-point shot).

Terry McCord had 41 points, including nine three-pointers. Brian Simpson, in just 15 minutes of playing time, had 37 points and 11 threes. Three Troy players were a point shy of 30 points.

“It reminded me of a street game you play in the summer,” Troy guard Tommy Davis said. “After you play a couple of games, people get a little tired and quit playing defense. Then it’s showout time with everybody trying to dunk and outdo each other.”

Despite playing at a frenzied pace from the opening tip, Troy had managed just 15 points after three minutes. And with 9:53 left in the first half, Troy was still behind “schedule” with 47 points.

From there, however, Troy shifted into hyperspace. The century mark fell with 3:14 left in the half. Any scoring the next three minutes would be gravy.

“When you see one guy hitting, then everybody gets in the act,” Tommy Davis said. “It becomes contagious.”

The virus spread rapidly. Troy finished the first half with 123 points. Twenty-one separate times trifectas paid out.

After 20 minutes of basketball, the record book was already in shambles. Troy’s 123 first-half points surpassed its own record of 103 set last year against, you guessed it, DeVry (when Troy set the then Division II-record by scoring 187 points in one game).

With 123 points in the bag, a nuclear attack is likely the only thing which could have prevented Troy from reaching 200 points. Peace, however, was maintained. Points, like rabbits, continued to reproduce.

Troy exploded for 26 points in the first three minutes of half No. 2. With 13:15 remaining in the game, Troy led 168-80. It was then Troy scored its first points of the half not of the three-point or slam dunk variety.

For those scoring at home, it went a little something like this:

Jack Smith, with authority: slam! Tommy Davis for three … good! … Smith for three; Terry McCord: backboard-shaking dunk; Tommy Davis for three; Dandrea Evans: slam; McCord: slam; Davis: three; Evans: three; McCord: three; Davis: slam; McCord: three; Davis: three; Evans: three; McCord: three; Davis: three … and, finally, Paul Bryan: old-fashioned, mundane, put-back.

After Bryan’s layup, the trend kicked back in. Sixteen of Troy’s next 18 points came via four trifectas and two more dunks.

For the game, Troy had 28 dunks to go with its 51 three-pointers. In other words, 209 of Troy’s 258 points came either via the long ball or the very short ball.

“I don’t know how many dunks I had,” Bryan said. “It was hard to keep track. I guess it was about eight.”

Ten minutes were left in the game when Troy broke the all-time scoring record of 187. Chris Greasham’s NBA three-pointer gave Troy 189.

With 7:53 left, Steve Hunt calmly drilled the shot heard round the world, a three-pointer from the top of the key, to break the bicentennial mark.

SCOREBOARD SUFFERS NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

But the Troy fans never got the thrill of seeing the big number appear on the big overhead Pepsi scoreboard. It seems American industry simply does not make scoreboards that count that high. Troy’s play had surpassed modern technology.

“I don’t know of any scoreboard (that registers into the two hundreds),” D.R. Jenkins, director of athletic facilities at TSU, said. “Except for us last year, no team had ever come close to scoring 200 points. I doubt any pro scoreboards have the capacity to go to 200. It’s something the engineers will have to work out, I guess.”

On a suggestion from Troy assistant coach David Felix, scorekeeper Scotty Sauers eventually started over from zero.

Thus, a stranger entering Sartain Hall as the clock ran down would have been shocked to see that the under-matched visiting team, which had just seven players, had nonetheless trounced the home team 141-58.

In the end, of course, 200 points was a piece of cake.

In the second half, Troy State did what every coach desires. It improved. Because it improved, Troy also set a record for breaking a record in the shortest period of time –– by hitting for 135 points in the second stanza, shattering the minutes-old mark of 123.

The Trojans hit a phenomenal 30 three-pointers in the final 20 minutes. Of all the records set Sunday, this was perhaps the topper.

Prior to Jan. 12, the NCAA record for most three-pointers in a game was 25 (set by Troy State). Troy blew away this record in less than a single half; it more than doubled the figure when two halves are combined.

PLAYERS DREW ENERGY FROM CROWD

Jack Smith, who was recently named Sports Illustrated’s small college Player of the Week, said Sunday’s game tops appearing in SI.

“This is bigger than any individual award, 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.”

Smith said with so much pre-game hype accompanying the DeVry game the players were determined not to let the fans down.

“I think in the back of our minds we thought we could do it,” he said. “When we saw so many people actually talking about it, we made up our mind that we were going to give it a shot and see what happens.”

And what happened was history, pure and astronomical.

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The official box score for the history books.

Other records and trivia:

The Trojans finished their 29-game slate for the 1991-92 season, scoring an average of 121.1 points per game, a season record that still hasn’t been broken. (Troy finished the season 23-6).

Note: Only one other team since (a D-III team) has broken 200 points in a game.

Coach Don Maestri’s Troy State team scored 130 or more points in 7 games that season, including 148 against Gulf South Conference rival Valdosta State a couple of weeks later on Feb. 6.

In the 1991-1992 season, the Trojans averaged hitting 15.3 3-pointers per game.

NCAA records included:

• 135 points in a half.

• 102 FGs made.

• 190 FGs attempted.

• 51 3-point field goals made.

• 109 3-pointers attempted.

• 65 assists in the game.

• 10 players hit at least one 3.

More Game Trivia:

• The two teams combined to score one point every six seconds.

• Troy had 28 slam dunks.

• DeVry attempted 0 free throws.

• Troy attempted only three free throws - all by current CHHS head coach Tim Fayson (Fayson made all three).

• The Trojans committed only one foul.

The game was, of course, covered by sports media around the country, including Sports Illustrated.

All of the above really happened. I know. I was there.

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2025 Trojans get past Ga. Southern, now in 2nd place in Sunbelt

After a tight first half, the Troy men's basketball team caught fire late to pull away from Georgia Southern en route to an 81-74 win on Thursday night in Trojan Arena.

Troy (14-7, 7-3 SBC) is now in sole possession of second place in the Sun Belt standings after a number of other SBC results broke in the Trojans favor. Georgia Southern (11-11, 4-6 SBC) struggled to slow down a Troy offense that shot 50 percent from the field, including 52.4 percent in the second half.

The Trojans started slow, and the Eagles quickly jumped ahead 22-13 with 10:55 remaining before the break. Troy was struggling to get anything going, while Georgia Southern was shooting the lights out. Troy opened 1-14 from 3-point range.

Down 27-17 with 6:45 left in the first half, Troy started to find its rhythm on both ends of the court and went on a 11-2 run to get things within one possession. Cooper Campbell made a nifty layup in the pain as time was expiring in the first half to give Troy a 41-40 lead going into the locker room.

Despite the Trojans starting slow on offense, they still shot 48.4 percent from the field. Theo Seng led Troy's early comeback by burying a trio of threes to finish the half with 11 points on 4-5 shooting. The Eagles shot 56.5 percent in the half but committed nine turnovers which led to more opportunities for Troy to get on the board.

The Trojans committed just three first-half turnovers were 7-9 from the free-throw line.

The two teams came out in the second half by trading buckets and the Troy lead never got bigger than five until Myles Rigsby buried a pair of free throws with 1:21 left to push the Trojan advantage to 75-68.

Troy's offense was much crisper in the second half, but the difference in the game was the defense. The Trojans held Georgia Southern to 35 percent shooting in the second half, while committing just five turnovers.

Tayton Conerway turned it on in the final 20 minutes, scoring 20 points on 4-6 shooting. He finished the night with a team-high 15 points, while also adding five assists, three rebounds and three steals. He has scored in double-figures in every single conference game this season.

Also scoring in double-digits for Troy wad Jackson Fields (12 points), Rigsby (11 points) and Seng (11 points). Troy is 5-2 this season when Fields scores 10-plus points this season. Thursday marked the first time since Troy beat LaGrange on Dec. 17, 2024, that it had four players score in double figures.

Thomas Dowd led the Trojans with eight boards.

Although it didn't win the battle on the glass, Troy still dominated in the paint by outscoring Georgia Southern 38-32. Fields and Jerrell Bellamy each had three blocks.


Quotable – head coach Scott Cross

"I am very thankful to the good Lord that we were able to pull this one out. We've had games where we definitely don't finish strong – Arkansas State, Texas State and Southern Miss. It was good to see our guys get stops down the stretch. Our matchup zone gave them trouble. We were able to keep ourselves out of foul trouble down the stretch, which I thought was big. Then, we were finally able to get some defensive rebounds. I thought that was the one thing we didn't do great at. But phenomenal job taking care of the basketball. That's the first time all year we've had less than 10 turnovers. That was a point of emphasis going into the game."

Up Next
Troy returns to Trojan Arena on Saturday afternoon for a showdown against ULM. The Warhawks are coming off back-to-back wins over South Alabama. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:33 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Troy Sports Media Network. The game is also “Mike Amos Day.”