With a pair of his­toric per­for­mances, two Col­orado prep bas­ket­ball leg­ends were over­writ­ten in the record books this winter.

The first came on Jan. 13 when Kennedy senior Keilani Vene­gas Alvarez dropped 64 points against Hink­ley, over­tak­ing the CHSAA sin­gle-game scor­ing mark of 61 set by ThunderRidge’s Abby Wan­er in 2005.

Five weeks lat­er, Man­u­al senior DeShawn Fox broke the sin­gle-game scor­ing record for the boys with 76 points against William Smith on Feb. 20, sur­pass­ing the 74-point bar set by Manual’s Chucky Spro­l­ing in 1987.

The scor­ing explo­sions by Vene­gas Alvarez and Fox gen­er­at­ed both praise and crit­i­cism across social media and the Col­orado bas­ket­ball com­mu­ni­ty, leav­ing some ques­tion­ing the man­ner in which both marks were achieved and whether there is a right or wrong way to break a sin­gle-game record.

Den­ver East head coach Rudy Carey’s own inter­nal debate, as Sproling’s coach at Man­u­al when he broke the record under sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances four decades ago, shows there’s no easy answers.

“I can’t point the fin­ger,” Carey admits, “because I had the fin­ger point­ed back at me.”

The record-breaking performances

Vene­gas Alvarez got the water­cool­er debate going last month when she set the new scor­ing record in a 104–6 defeat of Hinkley.

Hink­ley, which won five games total over the past three sea­sons, fin­ished 61st out of 62 teams in the Class 5A RPI while going 0–18. Due to injuries, Hink­ley played the entire sec­ond half against Kennedy with only five players.

After Vene­gas Alvarez put up 40 points in the first half, Kennedy head coach Jamar Bak­er said he wasn’t made aware of Waner’s record until he went to pull Vene­gas Alvarez in the mid­dle of the third quar­ter and the scorer’s table informed him she was only six points away.

“In my head, I was like, ‘There’s no way I can rob this kid of this moment,’” Bak­er said. “So I put her back in and told her to go get the record. Once she got the record ear­ly in the fourth quar­ter, I sat her down.”

Vene­gas Alvarez shot 27 of 44 from the field, 3 of 6 from 3‑point range and 7 of 10 from the stripe. The senior fin­ished with 18 steals, and the major­i­ty of her points came on fast-break lay-ups.

It was a sim­i­lar theme in Fox’s record-set­ter last week, when the senior was 37 of 40 from the field with no 3‑point attempts and 2 of 3 from the free throw line in a 131–20 vic­to­ry.

The major­i­ty of his points came via fast-break dunks or lay-ups as William Smith, like Hink­ley, strug­gled to get the ball up the floor and pos­sess it in the half-court. William Smith, which has won three games over the past three years, fin­ished 1–11 this sea­son and 53rd of 55 teams in the Class 3A RPI.

Man­u­al head coach Omar Hen­ry said the ini­tial goal was to see Fox score 55. He had 36 points at half, and then he went on a 20–0 run to start the third quarter.

Fox even­tu­al­ly broke the record with about a minute to play in the third, then came out with the rest of Manual’s starters.

“After he went on that 20–0 run, we said to our­selves: ‘Do we think he can get it in the third?’” Hen­ry said. “So we tried to get it (in that quar­ter). We want­ed to give him a chance at it.”

Backstory of the old records

While this year’s record-set­ting per­for­mances in extreme blowouts result­ed in crit­i­cism of Kennedy and Man­u­al, the his­toric scor­ing tal­lies from Wan­er and Spro­l­ing both occurred in a sim­i­lar­ly lop­sided fashion.

Waner’s mark was set in a 97–26 demo­li­tion of Gate­way, a strug­gling pro­gram that had nowhere near the size and tal­ent of the Griz­zlies, who capped that sea­son with a third straight Class 5A title.

Wan­er had 25 bas­kets in that game, most­ly fast-break lay-ups, as well as five 3s and six free throws to break the pri­or record of 59 set by Ridgway’s Tra­cy Hill in 1983. Hill and Wan­er remain No. 1 and No. 2, respec­tive­ly, in CHSAA’s all-time career and sin­gle-sea­son scor­ing categories.

The Duke-bound senior had 47 points at half­time, and Thun­der­Ridge worked around Gateway’s stall-ball tac­tic to keep get­ting Wan­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to score.

“We got a bit of (crit­i­cism) on the begin­nings of social media and some chat boards,” recalled then-Thun­der­Ridge coach Bill Bradley. “But the Gate­way play­ers were ask­ing her for her auto­graph after the game. Abby was a play­er who, at that point in time, had a Caitlin Clark-like phe­nom­e­non going with­in Colorado.”

Wan­er led the state in scor­ing at 32.5 points per game that year and said the record “felt very appro­pri­ate to me at the time.”

“It was and is kind of like a good par­ty sto­ry when some­one asks, ‘What’s the most points you’ve ever scored?’” said Wan­er (now Wan­er Bar­tolot­ta). “But out­side of that, what’s more impor­tant and more rel­e­vant to me is we won the cham­pi­onship that year.”

Eigh­teen years before Waner’s record, Spro­l­ing set his mark in a 138–56 win over Den­ver North, break­ing the stan­dard of 69 set by Kim’s Lane Good­en in 1976.

The St. John ‘s‑bound junior led the state in scor­ing that sea­son at 34 points per game. He reg­is­tered a triple-dou­ble in his 74-point game against Den­ver North, which hadn’t won a game in over two years, with 30 field goals and 14 free throws in 27 min­utes in the year before the arrival of the 3‑point line.

“I wasn’t even try­ing to go for the record,” Spro­l­ing said. “We were play­ing the game, and the shots start­ed dropping.”

After that game, Carey said he “heard (crit­i­cism) from everywhere.”

“I didn’t intend to set out to beat any­body like that,” Carey said. “When you’re play­ing 15 guys every quar­ter, I don’t know what else to do. Degrade them by lay­ing on the court? I felt bad for the North kids, but my alle­giance is to my kids and I have to man­age them the best I can.”

Negative reaction to new records

The blow­back to this year’s scor­ing records has been pro­nounced, due in large part to the avail­abil­i­ty of Max­Preps box scores and the viral nature of such per­for­mances on social media.

Carey him­self said he had mixed emo­tions after Fox’s record.

“If the record is bro­ken in the flow of the game and not in an inten­tion­al effort to break a record, (I’m good with it),” he said. “But to inten­tion­al­ly set out to break a record, and cher­ry-pick, and your main objec­tive is to break a record, I’m not with that. I’m not lauda­to­ry of that.

“… I’m hap­py for (Fox), and the fact it was anoth­er Man­u­al ath­lete was an excit­ing part for me. But I’m not sure I’m hap­py about how he broke it.”

Hink­ley girls head coach Dawn Quin­tero said that she was “dis­ap­point­ed in the sports­man­ship” by Kennedy in Vene­gas Alvarez’s record-set­ting game. She said most of her play­ers are begin­ners in the sport.

“It’s not hard to see what our skill lev­el was,” Quin­tero said. “I think they took advan­tage of it.”

Head coach­es Jar­ris Krapcha of Eagle­crest, Enoch Miller of Roo­sevelt and Caryn Jaroc­ki of High­lands Ranch all said they wouldn’t have chased the record, or con­tin­ued to play their top play­ers, in a game that was a 40-plus point dif­fer­ence at half.

“Embar­rass­ing a team and push­ing up scor­ing num­bers in the sec­ond half (of a blowout) is just not me,” Miller said.

Jaroc­ki ques­tioned why both Vene­gas Alvarez and Fox were still in the game in the third quarter.

“Every time this record is brought up, it’s against a team that’s far infe­ri­or,” Jaroc­ki said. “My phi­los­o­phy is, if you’re going to break a record, it should be against some­body good in a game that’s actu­al­ly com­pet­i­tive. If you’re win­ning by that much, why is your best play­er in the game?

“My oth­er point is, ‘Why are you run­ning up the score that much? Why aren’t you doing some­thing to make it less embar­rass­ing for the oth­er team?’ Like no fast breaks, or not steal­ing the ball, or pass­ing it five times before shoot­ing or run­ning through the offense with no shooting.”

Krapcha struck a sim­i­lar tone.

“The con­sen­sus of coach­es I’ve talked to is the way I feel, which is you auto­mat­i­cal­ly ques­tion, ‘Was it done with a lev­el of sports­man­ship and spir­it of the game in con­sid­er­a­tion? Or was it strict­ly just chas­ing the record and embar­rass­ing a team in the process?’” Krapcha said. “No one is real­ly cheer­ing it on.”

Kennedy’s and Manual’s defenses

Bak­er said he caught flack after Vene­gas Alvarez’s record, while Hen­ry said most of the neg­a­tiv­i­ty for Fox’s record was direct­ed at the play­er, much of it via Facebook.

Bak­er said he’s quick to remind detrac­tors that “Abby did it the same way,” while also point­ing out that the Com­man­ders only had six play­ers in their entire program.

“There were not real­ly too many options to sub her or (oth­er starters), unless you want me to start putting par­ents in the game,” Bak­er said. “If I had an actu­al bench, Keilani prob­a­bly only plays a few min­utes to start the third quarter.”

Bak­er also argued that the adver­si­ty that Vene­gas Alvarez endured over the past year under­scored his deci­sion to let her go for the record.

Vene­gas Alvarez missed most of 2022–23 with a high ankle sprain. Then over the sum­mer, she went through reha­bil­i­ta­tion at Nation­al Jew­ish Health to over­come exer­cise-induced laryn­geal obstruc­tion, a con­di­tion that caused her vocal cords to close while play­ing basketball.

“This record was a good way to fin­ish off my high school career,” said Vene­gas Alvarez, who aver­aged 20.6 points this year. “After the high ankle sprain, and then my huge breath­ing prob­lem that impact­ed me pret­ty severe­ly, (this record) was also a way to show that bas­ket­ball is some­thing I could still do, in a game that I grew with.”

Hen­ry also allud­ed to Spro­l­ing accom­plish­ing his record against an out­matched team. He says William Smith prin­ci­pal Kristin Wied­maier Collins and ath­let­ic direc­tor Ker­ri Burgs were at the game and con­grat­u­lat­ed Fox after­ward. (Burgs and William Smith head coach Kristi­na Her­rera did not respond to mul­ti­ple emails request­ing comment).

“We were not try­ing to run the score up,” Hen­ry said. Man­u­al prin­ci­pal Chris DeRe­mer shared that same sen­ti­ment in a phone call with Wied­maier Collins.

“(Fox) is a great stu­dent that’s worked hard all four years, and we final­ly had some­body get close enough to break the record,” Hen­ry said. “We felt like it was some­thing he deserved, we were all behind him 100%.”

Fox, who is aver­ag­ing 23 points ahead of Manual’s Class 3A state tour­na­ment open­er on Fri­day, said he’s ignored the crit­i­cism on social media. He, like Vene­gas Alvarez, received a pos­i­tive reac­tion with­in his school.

“(Fel­low stu­dents) walk by me in the halls and say, ’76!’” Fox said. “(To those who crit­i­cize), they’d prob­a­bly try to break the record if they got the oppor­tu­ni­ty. I say if you get the oppor­tu­ni­ty, go for it.”

To top it off, both play­ers saw their col­lege recruit­ment grow after break­ing the record.

Vene­gas Alvarez got her first offer, from Wal­dorf Uni­ver­si­ty, after her 64-point show­ing. Mean­while, Fox, who already had an offer from Phoenix Col­lege, said his recruit­ing increased after drop­ping 76.

Both Bak­er and Hen­ry also echoed Carey’s sen­ti­ment regard­ing Sproling’s his­toric per­for­mance in 1987, say­ing it’s not their job to wor­ry about the feel­ings or defi­cien­cies of the oth­er team.

“If you’re Hink­ley, why wouldn’t you dou­ble-team (Vene­gas Alvarez)? Or make adjust­ments?,” Bak­er said. “I’m not going to mess with (Vene­gas Alvarez)’s men­tal and tell her not to shoot in the third quar­ter, when she was wide open or get­ting (fast-breaks).

“Same thing with (Fox) — if he’s scor­ing that much, (William Smith) should have to make a defen­sive adjust­ment, and force some­one else to score. … I would tell (crit­ics) ‘don’t rob a kid of the mag­ni­tude of this moment.’”

The legends’ reaction

Both Col­orado high school leg­ends expressed their con­grat­u­la­tions to the new record-holders.

Wan­er said she feels for Hink­ley as she did for Gate­way in 2005, but she’s hap­py for Vene­gas Alvarez.

“I think once you get to a cer­tain lev­el, includ­ing var­si­ty bas­ket­ball in what­ev­er clas­si­fi­ca­tion, you kind of have to put on your big-girl pants and go play,” Wan­er said. “The com­pet­i­tive side in me prob­a­bly wins out on this one.”

Spro­l­ing — who was in the stands for Fox’s record-set­ting game, but left ear­ly because of the lop­sided score — is also hap­py for Fox, even though he said it was a “bla­tant, delib­er­ate attempt by the Man­u­al coach­ing staff (to break the record).”

“All records are made to be bro­ken, and the way Lane Good­en con­grat­u­lat­ed me, I want to pass the torch to the next guy in the same way,” Spro­l­ing said. “76 points is 76 points, even if you get it in your own back­yard or your driveway.”

Hen­ry doesn’t think Fox’s record will last long with the mod­ern game’s empha­sis on offen­sive output.

“A lot of kids are going to shoot for it in the next few years because it has a dif­fer­ent sta­tis­ti­cal mean­ing now,” Spro­l­ing said.

A national trend

After all, this isn’t just a Col­orado thing.

Look around the nation and play­ers drop­ping 60-plus points is no longer a rar­i­ty. Just this sea­son, there have been a num­ber of large scor­ing out­bursts — the major­i­ty of them in blowouts.

On the boys side, the nation’s lead­ing scor­er, Ben­jamin (Texas) junior Grayson Rig­don, scored 72 in a 97–36 win on Feb. 6. Rich­mond Senior (North Car­oli­na) senior Paul McNeil Jr. set a new state record with 71 points in a 118–52 win on Jan. 16.

For the girls, the nation’s lead­ing scor­er, Clair­ton (Pa.) junior Iyan­na Wade, scored 65 in an 82–32 win on Jan. 25. And the nation’s No. 2 scor­er, Rice (Texas) senior Saniya Burks, racked up 75 points in a 102–27 win on Feb. 2.

For some, those video game tal­lies dilute the sig­nif­i­cance of the record.

The all-time high school sin­gle-game scor­ing record for the boys is 135, set by Dan­ny Heater in West Vir­ginia in 1960. On the girls side a pair of Cal­i­for­ni­ans-turned-nation­al-super­stars top the archives: Cheryl Miller’s 105 in 1982, and Lisa Leslie’s 101 in one half in 1990.

“The indi­vid­ual career points record, that’s more indica­tive of the type of play­er they are,” Krapcha said. “That means you’ve done it over four years and your team’s prob­a­bly made some tour­na­ment runs. Also, total points in a state tour­na­ment and points per game for a whole sea­son, those types of records hold more water.”

Jaroc­ki said the sin­gle-game scor­ing record “nev­er had lus­ter for me to begin with.”

“I’ve had play­ers who could’ve (scored 70) eas­i­ly — but I would nev­er make it like that in a blowout, because is that real­ly sports­man­ship?” she said. “A long time ago, CHSAA used to have a record of biggest mar­gin of vic­to­ry in the record book, and they took that away because that’s not very sports­man­like. Maybe they should take this one away, too.”

Skep­tics or not, Vene­gas Alvarez or Fox aren’t sweat­ing it. It’s their name in the record books, after all.

“This record will always mean a lot to me,” Fox said. “I’ll tell my kids about it, my grand­kids. Chucky was hap­py to have it for so long, and no mat­ter (how long mine lasts), I will be too.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analy­sis on Denver’s teams.