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The highest scoring games in NCAA March Madness history – NCAA.com
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March Madness has been around in a four-region, 60-plus team format since 1985, when the NCAA DI men’s basketball tournament expanded to 64 schools, and later 68 in 2011. Since 1985, thousands of games have been played in the NCAA tournament (not counting the First Four). That’s a lot of basketball. And with a lot of basketball comes a lot of points.
But which of those games are responsible for the most of those points? In other words, what are the highest-scoring games in modern NCAA tournament history?
Here’s all 20 that have surpassed 200 total points:
Yes, we see it too. Somehow, Loyola Marymount is involved in all five of the highest-scoring games, and six of the top 16. Why?
In the three-year span from 1988-1990, the Lions led the NCAA in points scored per game AND points allowed per game each year. And it wasn’t close:
In 1990, when two of the top three highest-scoring NCAA tournament games were recorded, the Lions’ games were averaging 230.5 total points — 30.7 more than the next highest team. That’s about as perfect a recipe for record-breaking box scores as you can get.
During that three-year span, Loyola Marymount combined with its opponent to score more than 200 points in a game 62 times. The other five teams in the top five did that a total of just 12 times.
But the Lions were masters of getting other teams to play at their pace. Of the teams the Lions combined with to set the top five highest-scoring games, all averaged fewer than 80 points allowed per game.
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To see exactly how these records took shape, take a look at these absurd box scores for each of the top five:
Daniel Wilco has worked at the AJC, Sports Illustrated, and SEC Country. His writing has also appeared on SI.com, Men’s Health, and The Cauldron.
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