Pepper sets new NBL1 record with 59 points

Image credit: Michael Farnell (Sports Imagery)

It did feel a matter of time for an NBL1 West player to knock off Jack Purchase's NBL1 single game scoring record and it was Perth Wildcats NBL guard Elijah Pepper who did it for Warwick Senators on Saturday night.

Purchase scored 55 points back on May 4 earlier this year for the Melbourne Tigers against the Eltham Wildcats to set a new NBL1 scoring record across the country since the state-league bodies all joined forces starting back in 2019.

There had been a string of close calls ever since for that record to be broken particularly from players in the NBL1 West but it was Pepper that delivered on the promise on Saturday night when his Warwick Senators played the South West Slammers at Eaton Recreation Centre.

Pepper himself had been threatening that as he gears himself up for a second season in the NBL at the Perth Wildcats in his first campaign in the NBL1 West alongside Todd Withers, Cody Ellis and Mitch Clarke at the Warwick Senators.

Even the night before Pepper did look to be on target to break the record when he had 37 points to half-time for the Senators against the Perry Lakes Hawks at Warwick Stadium, but he finished the night with just the 44 points in the finish as his team won by 29.

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The opportunity then presented to do something on Saturday night with the Senators making the trip south to take on the bottom placed Slammers.

By the end of the evening, the Senators had hammered the Slammers 130-79 and Pepper had put his name on top of the record books as the highest scorer in a single game anywhere in the country since the NBL1 was launched.

The Wildcats NBL and Senators NBL1 guard ended up with 59 points, nine assists, four rebounds and two steals in the 33:44 of court time he played while shooting 22/31 from the field, 6/9 from three-point territory and 9/11 at the foul line.

Pepper started the game on fire for Warwick with 18 points in the first quarter before he added another nine points in the second period to go into the half-time break on 27.

He still had plenty of work to do in the second half and he got himself right on target with another 18 points in the third quarter to be on 45 points by three quarter-time.

Pepper went on with the job from there with a four-point play to open the last quarter, then a three-point play and then with 4:30 to go in the game, he made a bucket that saw him surpass the 55 points from Purchase earlier this year in the NBL1 South.

Pepper then added another triple to close out the game to go to 59 points with the 14 extra points in that last quarter.

The 24-year-old had started the NBL1 West season in remarkable form for the Senators with games of 50 points, 51, 48 and 50, but it wasn’t until Saturday night that he got to that 50-point mark again and now is the NBL1 single game scoring record holder as a result.

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Not only had Pepper been knocking on the door of that 55-point record that Purchase set when he overtook the 54 that Joe Cook-Green scored for the Kalamunda Eastern Suns back in 2023, but a string of other NBL1 West players had been knocking on the door.

Geraldton Buccaneers star Johny Narkle had 53 points back on June 21 against the Goldfields Giants while Marshall Nelson had 50 for the Eastern Suns against the Perth Redbacks, and just this past Tuesday night, Lachlan Bertram had 51 for the Mandurah Magic against the Rockingham Flames.

But it was Pepper that broke through for the 59-point performance and he now is averaging 36.3 points, 7.3 assists and 6.4 rebounds across the NBL1 West season for the Senators.

While it was a remarkable individual performance from Pepper and he is the standout leader for a single NBL1 game with the 59 points, he does have some ground to cover to overtake the 82 points that Paul 'Snoopy' Graham scored for the Goldfields Giants as the SBL record holder back in 1990.