A Breakdown of 30 Point Efforts by the Syracuse Basketball Team

There have been 193 times a Syracuse basketball player has scored 30+ points in a game. This was accomplished by 63 different players.

Dave Bing

Dave Bing accomplished the feat the most with 20 times.  Twelve players accomplished the feat 5+ times, including:  Bing (20), Greg Kohls (14), Billy Owens (10), Bill Smith (7), Preston Shumpert (7), Lawrence Moten (6), Rudy Hackett (6), Billy Gabor (5), Dennis DuVal (5), John Wallace (5), Pete Chudy (5), and Vinnie Cohen (5).

Colgate is the most common victim to a 30 point outburst from an Orange basketball player with 12. That really should not be a surprise given they also are by far the most common opponent.  Other teams with notable occurrences of 30 point efforts include:  Pitt (10), Cornell (9), Niagara (9), Canisius (7), UConn (7), LaSalle (7), Penn State (7), and St. John’s (7).  For those curious, Georgetown is on the list twice with Billy Owens doing it in 1990 and Carmelo Anthony in 2003.

The first player to do it was George Kirchgasser on November 7, 1904 against Jenner Prep. No player would accomplish it again until 1942 when Bob Shaddock scored 33 against Colgate.

The most common venue is the Orange home court where the Orange have done it an even 100 times.  Other breakdowns include:  64 times on the road, 9 times in the NCAA tournament, 8 times on a neutral court in season, 7 times in the Big East Tournament, 3 times in the NIT tournament, and 1 time each in the ACC Tournament and ECAC Tournament.

Twelve players have scored 40+ points in a game.  Bill Smith holds the school record with 47 against Lafayette in 1971.

Dave Bing holds the record for most field goals in a 30 point game with 19 against Colgate in 1965 on his way to 45 points. Allen Griffin has the first field goals with only 5 needed in a 31 point effort against St. John’s in 2001; he made 18 free throws and 3 three point shots in that game to help the cause.

Rick Dean had the best shooting night when he went 13-13 against Colgate in 1966, on his way to a 30 point night. John Wallace had the worst shooting night when he went 9-25 against Notre Dame in the Big East Tournament in 1996.  John did go 13-14 from the free throw line to help himself out.

Allen Griffin and Hakim Warrick each made 18 free throws on their way to 30 points games. Buddy Boeheim, Bob McDaniel, Carl Vernick, and George Kirchgasser had 0 free throws in their efforts (discussed earlier this week).

John Gillon, Gerry McNamara, Trevor Cooney, and James Southerland all had prolific three point shooting nights to make 9 three pointers on their way to 30+.   Gillon was the best sharpshooter in the effort going 9-10 from three and making 14-14 free throws.

Carmelo Anthony went 0-5 from three against Rutgers in 2003, though he still managed to get 30 on 10-10 free throw shooting and 10-23 from the floor.

Buddy Boeheim's 30 Points Were Rather Rare

Buddy Boeheim notched his third career 30 point game the other night in the win over Wake Forest. Boeheim’s shooting effort had an anomaly as he took no free throw attempts on his way to thirty.  

Buddy Boeheim

Only four Orange basketball players have ever scored 30+ points with no free throws attempted.   The last time was 52 years ago in 1970 when Bob McDaniel scored 36 points on 18 made field goals in 23 attempts.  

Carl Vernick accomplished the feat in December 1961 against Detroit when he made 15 field goals for 30 points.  George Kirchgasser was the first Orange basketball player to accomplish the feat back on November 1904 against Jenners Prep.  Kirchgasser also had 30 points on 15 field goal attempts.  Kirchgasser also has the notable feat of being the first Orange player to score 30 in a game at all.

Five Orange players have scored 30+ points in a game with just one made free throw including Buddy himself last year, Preston Shumper, Lawrence Moten (2x), Sherman Douglas, and Dennis DuVal.

At the other extreme, we have Hakim Warrick and Allen Griffin who both had 18 made free throws on their way to 30+ points. Warrick was 18-22 from the line, and a poor 6-15 from the floor on his way to 30 points against Rhode Island in November 2003.  Griffin was also 18-22 from the line, 5-9 from the floor, and 3-5 from three point range in March 2001 on his way to 31 points.

There have been 193 times an Orange player scored 30+ points in a game.  They averaged 12.1 field goals made and 7.6 free throws made in those games.  75 of the 193 efforts were in the three point era; players averaged 3.4 three point field goals made in those 75 games.