Career State Tournament Scoring Record

Every Minnesota high school basketball fan knows that Cody Schilling of Ellsworth broke Isaiah Dahlman's career scoring record in 2008. But most fans are probably unaware that he also broke the boys' career record for most points scored in the state tournament, because this record is not included among the scoring records published in the MSHSL tournament programs each year.

In fact, Dahlman probably would have set a career tournament scoring record in 2006 if there had been an awareness of it. But no one knew that Isaiah was closing in on Khalid El-Amin's record of 238 points, and so Dahlman came out of the championship game (won by Braham over Breck 72-53) just two points short of the record. Schilling, on the other hand, only needed two points in last year's A final against Minnesota Transitions to break El-Amin's record, and he scored 30. In so doing, he also became the only boy in history to lead the MSHSL tournament in scoring three times. 

Evolution of Boys' Career Tournament Scoring Record

1913--Peter Guenther, Mountain Lake 71 points, 17.75 points per game. 

1914-1915--Gerhard Hiebert, Mountain Lake 76 points, 15.2 ppg. Hebert scored 12 points in 2 games in 1913 (and no box scores exist for 2 other Mountain Lake games in 1913). If Hebert and Hiebert are the same, he scored at least 88 points and more likely another few points in those 2 games with the missing box scores.

1918-1919--Gordie Malmer, Albert Lea 83 points, 11.86 ppg. Sources disagree whether Malmer scored 64 or 65 points for Albert Lea's 1919 state champs. Box scores also attribute 18 points in 2 games to him in 1918, while there is no box score for a third game. And, there is confusion both years between Gordie and his brother Clarence. Bottom line, Gordie scored at least 83 points and probably more.

1944-1945--Jim McIntyre, Mpls. Patrick Henry 186 points, 31.0 ppg. Broke the record by almost 100 points.

1955-1956--Ron Johnson, New Prague 203 points, 33.83 ppg.

1972-1973-1974--Mark Olberding, Melrose 228 points, 22.8 ppg.

1995-1996-1997--Khalid El-Amin, Mpls. North 238 points, 21.64 ppg

2006-2007-2008--Cody Schilling, Ellsworth 267 points, 29.67 ppg.

Top 10 in Career Points

1. Schilling 267 points

2. El-Amin 238 

3. Isaiah Dahlman, Braham 236, 26.22 ppg

4. Olberding 228

5. Ben Johnson, DeLaSalle 227, 25.22 ppg

6. R. Johnson 203

7. Erik Kelly, Staples 200, 18.18 ppg

8. McIntyre 186

9. Bob Zender, Edina 184, 20.44 ppg

10. Randy Breuer, Lake City 181, 30.17 ppg

The next five on the list are Ray Cronk, Bemidji; Chris Heier, Staples; Jabbar Washington, Mpls. North; Dave Tschimperle, Hopkins; and Arvesta Kelly, Cretin.