On Tuesday night, Wayland Baptist guard J.J Culver popped off and scored 100 points against Southwestern Adventist to become just the second player in NAIA history to hit triple figures in a game. His teammates added in a robust modest 24 points to help his team to a 124-60 rout. Hey man, sometimes you just gotta get out of the way.
This helluva night also allowed J.J. to double the old school record of 50, which he had broken by halftime, after scoring 51 points in the game's first 20 minutes.
J.J., who is a senior, has a last name that may be especially familiar to Texas Tech and Timberwolves fans, which is of no coincidence since he's the older brother of Wolves rookie Jarrett Culver. Not at all coincidentally, here's said younger brother celebrating the accomplishment of his older sibling:
As for how J.J. acquired his points, well, he shot a lot, from deep, from the free throw line, from inside, you name it. According to the box score, he was 34-for-62 on the night from the field. He also made 12 three-pointers (on 33 attempts) and sank 20 of his 27 free-throws.
As mentioned above, his teammates got out of the way by going a combined 8-of-15 from the field in addition to making 5 of 6 free-throws. The next highest scorer for the Pioneers was Jonathan Robinson, who ended the night with eight points. Not bad but, you know.
"We always script our first couple of plays, and J.J. scored on the first three or four," said the team's coach, Ty Harrelson. "The guys realized he was hot and kept going to him. We figured as long as he's taking good shots and shots out of our philosophy that he had a chance to do something special tonight."
As for the only other NAIA player to record 100-points in a game? That would be Clarence "Bevo" Francis of Rio Grande (Ohio) fame. Back in 1954, "Bevo" poured in a record 113 points against a Hillsdale team whose memory lives on in write-ups that briefly recognize their night of putrid defense.
As noted by ESPN, only one player in NCAA D-1 history turned in a 100-point game, which also came in 1954 as Furman's Frank Selvy lit up Newberry College for that exact amount.
J.J.'s accomplishment marks the first time a college player of any organized affiliation has put up 100 since Grinnell College's Jack Taylor scored an NCAA-record 109 points in a D-III game in 2013. Taylor also holds the NCAA-record for most points in a game, period, which came after he scored 138 in 2012.
Let this give you something to shoot for in intramurals or at the gym or wherever you next sink your first few shots.
As for the season, J.J. is now averaging 36.1 points per game. His brother Jarrett, who went sixth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft by the way, has averages of 9.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.
