Hayes-Davis on historic 50-point performance: “Credit goes to my teammates”

By scoring 50 points in Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul’s 103-68 win against ALBA Berlin, Nigel Hayes-Davis has usurped Shane Larkin and set a new single-game record for points scored in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game.

The night got off to a great start for Hayes-Davis, who set a new Fenerbahce record by scoring 18 first-quarter points – no Fenerbahce player had ever scored 18 points in a quarter before. Then, at halftime, the 29-year-old had 21 points to his name.

Once the second half began, Hayes-Davis picked up where he left off by erupting for 15 third-quarter points, which took him to 36 heading into the fourth. Clearly in search of creating some history, Hayes-Davis was coming out of the game only for brief stretches, despite Fenerbahce being up big, and he went on to score a further 14 points, thus seeing him move to 50 points and knock off Larkin’s record.

Some 1,582 days stood between Larkin netting 49 in Anadolu Efes Istanbul’s win against FC Bayern Munich on November 29, 2019, and Hayes-Davis doing so on March 29, 2024. Almost four and a half years.

“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 Saras [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.”