Boys BB: Cal City’s 165-point night

California City won its Friday night boys basketball game at Frazier Mountain of Lebec by the whopping score of 165-38. That is a new state record for most points in a single game. As usual with single game records, however, questions about running up the score have to be asked. The answers may not be known until later in the upcoming week.

For a look at the complete list for most points in one game and for all state records in boys basketball that were current at the start of the 2017-18 season, CLICK HERE.

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Prep editor Trevor Horn of the Bakersfield California took an incoming call on Friday night that he knew required immediate notification to Cal-Hi Sports regarding a possible state record.

The call came in from Frazier Mountain boys basketball coach Nicole Powell (more on her later) who reported the score of her team’s game against visiting California City. The Ravens had won 165-38. Horn double-checked the score and then began looking up records with his deadline approaching.

“She called it in herself and I thought that was a classy thing for her to do,” Horn said.

California City had a 122-53 win earlier this season against Vasquez of Action and had gone over 100 points five times earlier in the season. Head coach Ronald Fleming’s team loves to press continuously and likes to shoot 3-pointers, but based on its stats on MaxPreps it appears to be more about the press forcing steals than burying 3-pointers that accounts for the high scoring.

On Friday night, the Ravens only scored 30 points in the first quarter, but in the second they set their first state record of the night with 60 and they led 90-19 at halftime. They already had 142 points at the start of the fourth quarter. Although the team eased up in the fourth quarter (margin was 23-7) that was plenty to break the previous state record of 156 set in January of 1993 by Balboa of San Francisco in a 156-82 win against O’Connell of San Francisco.

California City’s MaxPreps page also had more stats from the game inputted. The Ravens shot 14 of 42 on 3-pointers, made 54 of 92 shots for two points and were credited with 50 steals.

For most points in a quarter, the previous reported state record of 55 was set in January of 2006 by King-Drew of Los Angeles in a 101-50 triumph vs. Los Angeles Elizabeth. Obviously in that game, the frenetic scoring was halted after halftime.

For most points in a half, the Ravens now have a tie for that state record as well. Their 90-point mark tied the record reported for a 1996 game when St. John’s of Whitewater (Riverside County) beat Long Beach Youth Home 143-25.

For a game with the widest winning margin, that is another state record for California City. The 127-point margin surpasses the previous record of 125 set in January of 2002 when Stoneridge Prep of Tarzana defeated Bridges Academy of Sherman Oaks 148-23.

Leading scorers in the game for the Ravens were Raymond Powell and Hubert Johnson with 28 points each. Three other players all scored 24 or more. It also doesn’t appear that the team is limited by a small roster. There are 14 listed on the team’s MaxPreps page.

Nicole Powell coaches a myriad of sports at Frazier Mountain and is listed as a physical education teacher at the school. While her status as a woman coaching a boys basketball team is rare it has happened a few times at California high schools in recent years.

For many years, the single game state record sat at 150 points by Geyserville from a 1967 game. That record was surpassed in 1992 by Mission of San Francisco with 151. Then the next season Balboa went after that record and broke it with its 156-point night. Balboa’s record lasted for just over 25 years until Friday night.

Most Points (Game)
165 – California City vs. Lebec Frazier Mountain (38), Feb. 2018
156 – San Francisco Balboa vs. San Francisco O’Connell (82), Jan. 1993
151 – San Francisco Mission vs. San Francisco International Studies (38), Feb. 1992
151 – San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s vs. South Gate Southeast Lutheran (35), Feb. 1994
150 – Geyserville vs. Middletown (81), Feb. 1967
149 – Los Angeles Crenshaw vs. Los Angeles Murphy (64), Dec. 1987
148 – Tarzana Stoneridge Prep vs. Sherman Oaks Bridges Academy (23), Dec. 2002
147 – Los Angeles Jefferson vs. Los Angeles Washington (87), Jan. 1966
146 – San Francisco Balboa vs. Gridley (62), Dec. 1995
146 – Chino Hills vs. Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos (123), Feb. 2017
145 – Oakland Patton vs. San Jose Christian Community, 1991

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports


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5 Comments

  1. BBallFan8
    Posted February 5, 2018 at 4:56 pm | Permalink

    The problem here is they DID RUN IT UP, if you call full court pressing the ENTIRE game running it up, then absolutely they did. This is first hand information and the Calif. City coach was more concerned about his max preps ranking trying to get to #1 in the country in scoring. It is outrageous in this day and age when CIF talks about playing with”honor” that a coach and school will do this. California City High school did NOT ease up in the 4th quarter as this article stated, the only reason they only scored 23 points is because of the state CIF rule that when it’s above 40 points in the 4th quarter, the clock runs continuously….so a running clock and still pressing…..the starters had no business in the game in the 2nd half, and do the math on the box scores of their starters after half time and you’ll see they clearly played a LOT….
    California City High School is a DISGRACE to sportsmanship statewide for CIF or anywhere in this country….165 points and win by 127 points? Someone needs to get either suspended for a game or 2 or something more severe, but this is embarrassing! Shame on California City High School and their boys varsity basketball program!

    • Mark Tennis
      Posted February 7, 2018 at 11:15 am | Permalink

      Sorry, we didn’t have all the details when initially writing up the Cal City 165 points for one game.
      Definitely a questionable outing for that team. At least in the game last year when Chino Hills scored all those points and La’Melo had 92 the other team had 114.

    • Otha Books
      Posted June 1, 2023 at 11:59 am | Permalink

      Coach Fleming subbed every four minutes. The first team only played 16 minutes in the game. Cal City players that year were not smart enough to play a zone; and that is a fact. Every time they played a zone that year they would lose games. Cal City was leading the nation in scoring and had 15 players who could start games. So you bring a player off the bench and tell him not to compete? As for a zone all the team understood as far as defense was concern is, I am responsible for a man (94′ feet), it was not a press it was man to man 94′. People who know basketball know the opposing coach could have stopped the game at any point and time. When Lisa Leslie scored 103 points in a game it was all in the first half. The opposing team forfeited the second half of that game. Lisa Leslie and her team was trying to get her pass Cheryl Miller’s 105 points she score for Riverside Poly. No player on Coach Fleming’s team score more than 30 points. No player on Coach Fleming’s team played more than 16 minutes.

  2. Craig Schoene
    Posted February 19, 2018 at 3:28 pm | Permalink

    Central Section Commissioner Jim Critchlow put the Cal City Boys basketball team on probation for their running up the score vs. Frazier Mountain HS. Critchlow stated that if Cal City ran up the score again, he would remove their team from the CIF playoffs

    • Mark Tennis
      Posted February 20, 2018 at 10:44 am | Permalink

      Have seen that and would agree.

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