Sophomore goes 37-for-61 from field, 7-for-22 from deep
CHINO HILLS, Calif. — He scored 92 points in a 146-123 win for Chino Hills High School.
Forty-one of those points came in the 8-minute fourth quarter for LaMelo Ball.
The 15-year-old sophomore was 37-for-61 from the field, 7-for-22 from beyond the arc and 11 of 14 from the free throw line in the win over Los Osos.
The national record for points is 135 by Danny Heater from West Virginia, back in 1960.
Ball said his performance was dedicated to a classmate, Lexi, who is in the hospital, according to ESPN, and that his teammates, aware of the situation, encouraged him to keep shooting as the points piled up.
Perhaps unaware of that angle, Los Osos coach Dave Smith said it was “a joke,” and was, apparently, unhappy with the opponents fouling in the fourth quarter to prolong the game.
“That’s wrong,” Smith told the LA Times. “It goes against everything CIF stands for. … it’s embarrassing to high school athletics. I’ve been coaching for 35 years, and we’ve turned high school athletics into individualism.”
Ball and co., had a 60-game winning streak snapped on Sunday. This was the first game since that loss.