By John Rammas/ irammas@eurohoops.net
The 27-year-old left-handed shooting guard’s scoring show resonated for a reason beyond sheer volume, however. That’s because Hilliard scored all those points without the benefit of a single free throw – and that is very rare.
How rare? More than 200 this century has a player scored at least 30 points in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game. But in all those 20-plus seasons, only four players have scored that much without the help of a single free throw made.
Hilliard was the fourth and also joined an even shorter list of players who scored 30 or more without standing at the free throw line at all.
Βased on how special this is, Eurohoops presents the nine best scoring nights without free throws in the EuroLeague from 2000 to this day.
RODRIGUE BEAUBOIS
29 pts | 7/8 2PT | 5/8 3PT
In 2017, Baskonia finished seventh in the regular season before being eliminated 3-0 by CSKA in the playoffs. Current Anadolu Efes Istanbul guard Rodrigue Beaubois has something to hold onto from that season – his first of two with Baskonia – and that is his career-high scoring game in the EuroLeague. And what a career high it was!
In just 19:23 minutes of a blowout 102-70 home win over UNICS Kazan in Round 16 of the regular season, Beaubois he scored 29 points by making 7 of 8 two-pointers and 5 of 8 threes. The one foul committed by the rival defense was not enough to send him to the foul line – and obviously not enough to stop him.
DAVID BLU
29 pts | 7/7 2PT | 5/7 3PT
David Blu may have linked his name forever with Maccabi Tel Aviv, but that wasn’t the only team with whom he achieved big things. Fortitudo Bologna was another EuroLeague club of his, and while wearing that jersey for a game against RheinEnergie Cologne exactly 14 years ago this week, on November 16, 2006, Blu had one of the most special games on his resume.
Playing at home in Bologna, his count didn’t stop until 29 points based on 7-for-7 two-point and 5-for-7 three-point shooting over 25 minutes. And even though he drew 4 fouls, none put him on the free throw line. Alas, Blu could not fully enjoy his career high as Bologna lost 86-90 to the German visitors.
JOHN BROWN
29 pts | 13/21 2PT | 1/1 3PT | 0/3 FT
John Brown can say that misfortune forced him to retire from basketball at the age of 31 in 2005. His opponents can say that they had the misfortune of being… his opponents.
While playing for Buducnost Podgorica at home against Baskonia in 2002, during his first season in Europe and his only one in the EuroLeague (2002-03), Brown scored at will on the way to a career-high 29 points, making 13 of 21 two-pointers and his only three-point attempt in 37 minutes. Unlike others on the list, Brown was on the foul line that night, too, but didn’t make any of his 3 attempts there. Alas, he couldn’t enjoy the moment either, because Buducnost lost 71-81 to Baskonia.
MARCELO NICOLA
29 pts | 4/7 2PT | 7/13 3PT
Before he started his coaching career, Marcelo Nicola’s favorite pastime was making rival defenses suffer on the court. Ask one of his rivals from the 2001-02 season, Scavolini Pesaro.
Playing for Benetton Treviso, Nicola turned the Scavolini defense upside down with a career-high 29 points while making 4 of 7 two-pointers and 7 of 13 threes. He drew 3 fouls, too, but didn’t get to the free throw line. He, too, may have been unlucky to lose that Top 16 Round 4, as Scavolini prevailed 101-98 in Pesaro, but Benetton won their group and advanced to that season’s Final Four.
JEMEIL RICH
29 pts | 10/17 2PT | 3/6 3PT | 0/2 FT
Lugano Snakes is the only Swiss team that has played in the EuroLeague this century, and it did so in the inaugural 2000-01 seasons. Jemeil Rich is quite possibly the player that most will remember from that team, and for very good reason, considering how landed in the very first week of play in the new EuroLeague in October of 2000.
On opening night at home against Zadar, he put down 10 of 17 two-point shots and 3 of 6 threes to finish with 29 points in 35 minutes. He also had 2 free throw tries and missed them both in the game’s last 5 seconds, with his team behind 73-75. Fortunately for Rich and Lugano, his teammate Michael Polite rebounded the second miss and scored for a final 75-74 victory by the Snakes. Even though that was a special performance, Rich came back right away the next game to post his career high, 30 points, in a road loss to Peristeri, but in that one he made 6 of 7 free throws.
DARRUN HILLIARD
31 pts | 5/6 2 PT | 7/10 3PT
They say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. That is exactly what Hilliard did for CSKA last week in a Round 8 home game against Baskonia. The visitors had come back from a 15-point deficit after 35 minutes, but Hilliard saved the day by scoring the crucial three-pointer to break a tie with 23 seconds left as CSKA went on to win 89-86. That shot was his seventh three-pointer of the night, putting him in good company with Trajan Langdon, Nando De Colo and Milos Teodosic for CSKA’s club record.
With his 5 of 6 two-pointers, too, Hilliard totaled 31 points and every one of them counted in the absence of CSKA’s top scorer, Mike James. Hilliard played 34 minutes and drew one foul, but it didn’t put him on the foul line. As it turned out, he didn’t need it, either.
DANIEL EWING
32 pts | 7/9 2PT | 6/8 3PT
It was just his second game in what would turn into four EuroLeague seasons, three of them with Prokom Trefl Sopot, including a run to the playoffs that fans still remember for being the only time a representative of Poland made it that far. Daniel Ewing was one of the biggest contributors to that two-year process, starting with his Round 2 explosion against SLUC Nancy of France in the 2008-09 regular season.
Playing at home that night, Ewing went off for a career-high 32 points while making 7 of 9 two-pointers and 6 of 8 three-pointers in 33:33 minutes. He drew a foul that did not elicit a free throw, but he had the satisfaction of knowing his only 30-point game in the EuroLeague was worth a whopping 91-62 victory in Gdansk.
MARCUS HAISLIP
33 pts | 9/10 2 PT | 5/9 3PT | 0/1 FT
Among the six seasons he played in the EuroLeague between 2005 and 2011, his singular one with Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2005-06 was very good for Marcus Haislip. The numbers bear it out, as does one particular performance full of career-highs.
In a 91-76 home win over RheinEnergie Cologne in Round 9 of the regular season, nobody was able to contain Haislip as he poured in 33 points on 9-for-10 two-point and 5-for-9 three-point shooting in just under 34 minutes. He had an and-one opportunity but missed his only free throw of the night, but otherwise was unstoppable in his only career game with 30 points or more.