Former Wisconsin basketball star Nigel Hayes-Davis scores 50 points, breaks EuroLeague record

Former Wisconsin basketball star Nigel Hayes-Davis etched his name into EuroLeague history.

The Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul forward scored 50 points on Friday in a 103-68 victory over ALBA Berlin, setting a new record for points in a single game in the EuroLeague. The total surpassed the previous record held by Shane Larkin, who scored 49 points in 2019. The mark also bested the previous Fenerbahce total held by Nando De Colo (39 points).

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“I had it written in my notes at the beginning of the season that I wanted to break the scoring record this year,” Hayes-Davis said after his 50-point outing. “Right before the game, I texted my guys Jordan and Nate, and told them that I was feeling a Dejounte Murray game. I didn’t know I was going to score 50, I just knew I was going to shoot the ball a lot!

“But all the credit goes to my teammates. Once I got it going, they were doing a great job finding me – and an even bigger thanks goes to Ilker [Ucer, Fenerbahce’s communications and media relations manager] and the fans because the fans knew the scoring record was 49 and they started yelling at [Fenerbahce coach Sarunas Jasikevicius] to put me back in. It was a club effort, team effort, and I’m very proud of myself for doing this. Very proud of myself and the work and everything I put in. It’s a great honor.”

The Murray reference is to the Hawks guard, who put up 44 shots against the Boston Celtics Thursday in a 123-122 overtime win. He scored 44 points in that effort.

Hayes played for the Badgers from 2013-17 and helped the team reach the national championship during the 2014-15 season. Here's more on his historic night.

Nigel Hayes-Davis EuroLeague single-game scoring record

Hayes-Davis finished his historic performance by scoring a layup with 18 seconds left in the game, going for the record despite his team holding a big lead. He scored 18 points in the first quarter and had 36 points through three quarters. He re-entered in the fourth quarter to score 14 more. Hayes-Davis played just over 30 minutes in the contest. He shot 9 of 16 from 3-point range and 5 of 7 from the free throw line.

Despite the historic EuroLeague performance, his coach Sarunas Jasikevicius had expense at another statistic.

"He had 0 assists. We need to talk about this a little bit," Jasikevicius said.

MORE:Scenes from Nigel Hayes' career as a Wisconsin Badger

Nigel Hayes-Davis at Wisconsin

Hayes-Davis played for the Badgers from 2013-17, helping the Badgers make deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, first off the bench in 2013-14 then as a starter in 2014-15. He averaged 7.7 points and 2.8 rebounds per game as a freshman, coming off the bench in all 38 games and averaging 17.4 minutes per game.

He started all 112 games he appeared in for the Badgers for the rest of his career. He averaged 12.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game as a sophomore, 15.7 points and 5.8 rebounds and earned first-team All-Big Ten as a junior. As a senior, he had 14.0 points and 6.6 rebounds per game after being named the Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year going into the season.

The 2014-15 team, which also included future NBA player and Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky featured a run that ended in a 68-63 loss to Duke in the National Championship game.

He went undrafted in the 2017 NBA Draft and had brief stints with the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings in the 2017-18 season. He has played with Fenerbahce since 2022, a Turkish club.