Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Lamar’s Mike James dumps 52 points on D-III school

Lamar may have to tweak its offense.

Mike James doesn’t start for the Cardinals. He’s missed five of their 13 games this season. He plays about 15 minutes a game and averages just over 10 points an outing.

Hell, he didn’t even rate much of a mention in the school’s pregame press release, though he was coming off a season-high 16 points against Tulane.

That’s all about to change.

James scored 52 points during a 114-62 win against D-III Louisiana College Tuesday night. The 6-1 junior guard hit 18 of 35 shots, including 11 of 21 beyond the arc, all in 28 minutes off the bench. The 52 points and the 11 3s set schools records.

“What happened was they said what the school record was for 3s, so we attempted to get him that,” Lamar coach Steve Roccaforte told the Beaumont Enterprise. “Once he got that, I was going to take him out of the game, and then they told me what the school record was and where he was point-wise. That is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I felt we needed to take advantage of that for him and for our team.”

According to ESPN, it was the most points by someone coming off the bench in the last 15 seasons, since Texas San Antonio’s Roderic Hall did it vs. Maine in 1997. It also tops the 48 points Ed Gray dropped for Cal in 28 minutes back in 1997.

James relished every bit of it.

“It means a lot,” James told the paper. “You get remembered forever. If I come back or anything, they’ll always know who I am. I’ll always be in the record books.”

Want more? I’m also on Twitter @BeyndArcMMiller.