Top 10 single-season high school basketball scoring averages, including Bjorn Broman's 7th-place finish
Bjorn Broman 74 point game (Every Point) Bjorn Broman of Lakeview Christian Academy (Duluth, Minn.) concluded his senior season with 54 points in a 93-91 playoff loss to Fon du Lac Ojibwe Ogichida (Minn.) on Saturday. The point total gave Broman 1,389 points for his senior season and a 49.6 points per game scoring average.
Broman's scoring average is the seventh-highest in national history and the highest since Johnny Benjamin averaged 52.4 ppg for Central Florida Academy in 1988.
Here's a look at the top 10 all-time single-season scorers, according to information compiled by sports historian Doug Huff.
Top 10 high school boys basketball single-season scoring averages
54.0 - Bobbie Joe Douglas, Marion (La.), 1980
Douglas set the national record for scoring average in a season by scoring 2,052 points in 38 games at Marion, a Class C-sized school in northeastern Louisiana. Douglas had a high game of 93 points and finished with 4,070 points in his career. Douglas went on to play at Northeast Louisiana University, but he did not match his high-scoring ways from high school. In 2012, Douglas' son Brandon averaged a double-double for Sterlington (La.), where his father was the assistant coach.
53.7 - Ervin Stepp, Phelps (Ky.), 1980
The Stepp name can be found throughout the state record book in Kentucky. Ervin's brothers Jim and Joe each led the state in scoring during the 1970s while Ervin led the nation in scoring as a junior with 47.2 points per game. Ironically, Stepp did not lead the nation when he averaged 53.7 points during his senior year in 1980 (see No. 1 Bobbie Joe Douglas). Stepp had a career high of 75 points in one game and played college basketball at Eastern Kentucky. According to a story in the Williamson Daily News in 2009, Stepp has continued to be active playing basketball, despite losing several fingers on one hand and breaking his back in two places during an automobile accident.
52.4 - Johnny Benjamin, Central Florida Academy (Orlando, Fla.), 1988
Benjamin had a troubled high school, and post-high school, career but he was unstoppable his senior year at Central Florida Academy when he averaged 52.4 points per game. Benjamin played his sophomore year at CFA before transferring to Jones (Orlando, Fla.) as a junior. According to an Orlando Sentinel story, Benjamin left Jones amid reports of falsified transcripts that allowed him to be eligible. Following his senior year at CFA, Benjamin enrolled at Auburn, but was dismissed from the team for theft charges. Benjamin bounced around to three other colleges before being arrested for selling drugs to an undercover police officer in 1989.
50.9 - Bennie Fuller, Arkansas School for the Deaf (Little Rock, Ark.), 1971
According to Bob Heist in a story written for the News Journal in 2012, Fuller is the only deaf basketball player to ever score over 100 points in a game. He did so on Jan. 19, 1971 thanks to a 38-point flurry in the fourth quarter. Fuller set the national scoring record for season average that year with 50.9 points per game and he finished his career with 4,896 career points.
50.4 - Kent Hyde, Onida (S.D), 1954
The first player to ever average over 50 points per game, Hyde set the record in 1954 with 1,411 points in 28 games while leading Onida to a Class B state championship. A 6-foot-5 center, Hyde reportedly had 42 offers coming out of high school, but chose to play at South Dakota State. Drafted by the St. Louis Hawks, Hyde's basketball career ended due to a back injury.Photo courtesy of Andrew Chiu
Bjorn Broman, Lakeview Christian Academy
49.8 - Steve Farquhar, Calvary Baptist (Lakewood, N.J.), 1985
A 6-foot-2 guard who played college basketball at Liberty, Farquhar scored 1,494 points in 30 games for the tiny New Jersey school. His 37.5 ppg average for a career ranks third in national history according to the National Federation of State High School Associations record book.
49.6 - Bjorn Broman, Lakeview Christian Academy (Duluth, Minn.), 2015
See above.
47.7 - Tom McMillen, Mansfield (Pa.), 1970
McMillen concluded his high school career in 1970, and was hailed as one of the greatest high school basketball players ever. He attended the University of Maryland and earned a silver medal in the 1972 Olympics. He also became a Rhodes Scholar and played 13 years in the NBA before beginning a career as a United States Congressman.
47.4 - Ochiel Swaby, North Miami (Fla.), 1991
The national scoring leader as a senior in high school, Swaby played college ball at University of Miami and Central Florida and had brief stint with the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA. He's known now as the coach of the Miami Country Day girls basketball team, which won a Class 3A state championship in Florida last year and repeated as champions two weeks ago. Miami Country Day was ranked No. 12 in the last Xcellent 25 National Girls Basketball Rankings.
47.3 - Steve Blehm, School for the Deaf (Devils Lake, N.D.), 1971
Blehm set his record during his sophomore season, when his lowest scoring game of the season was a 32-point outing. Blehm's career scoring average of 41.5 points per game ranks as the No. 1 career scoring average in high school history, according to the NFHS Record Book. Blehm also holds the state record with 85 points in one game.
Note: Some stories have reported that Wilt Chamberlain averaged 47.2 points per game during his senior year at Overbrook (Philadelphia) in 1955. However, according to Ted Silary, a longtime Philadelphia sports writer, Chamberlain averaged 47.2 points in league play (12 games, 566 points). Chamberlain did average 44.4 points in 19 games and included in that total was a 90-point outing.
