There is a great recent history of big-time scorers in Lake County.
Since the turn of the century 26 years ago, there have been eight different players from the county that have surpassed 2,000 career points since 2000.
The sensational Jalen Brunson of Stevenson set the county scoring record from 2011-2015, breaking the previous scoring mark Zion-Benton’s Malik Yarbrough set a year earlier. Brunson, who went on to become an All-American at Villanova and is currently a NBA all-star with the New York Knicks, finished his high school career with 2,682 points.
Now Warren’s Jaxson Davis is in hot pursuit.
The junior star at Warren eclipsed 2,000 career points last week and is on pace to crush the county scoring record. He just passed Mundelein’s Robert Knar (2009-2013) last week to move into ninth place on the scoring list and will surpass Waukegan’s Bryan Brown (2015-2019) this week.
“The number means a lot,” Davis said of reaching 2,000 points. “Just knowing so many players struggle to make it to 1,000. It’s a true blessing to make it to 2,000 as a junior. But the thing I’m most happy with is that our team is winning. Winning comes first. The accolades, the records and awards only can come after that.”
With five regular-season games remaining, along with a likely long postseason run looming, Davis should surpass at least 2,250 points this season. That would leave him roughly 430 points short of the record.
With the addition of games to the high school schedule over the years — there are now 31 regular-season games allowed compared to just 25 games decades ago — Davis could break the record by midseason of his senior year.
What’s interesting when watching and evaluating Davis is how he remains an unselfish player despite being a scoring machine. The 6-0 point guard is a master facilitator, slinging pinpoint passes while displaying a penchant for putting teammates in a better position to score.
Davis says he thinks about and considers his future when blending his scoring and distributing together.
“I come with the mindset of knowing what my role will be at the next level,” Davis said. “I’m not the biggest or strongest player, so I need to be the best basketball player that I can be. That’s with my passing and making and knowing the right reads, and that’s also ultimately to make my teammates better with the right passes. That’s what is going to lead to winning basketball games.”
On pace to become the first player ever to score 3,000 points in Lake County history, Davis could also make a significant climb up the state scoring records during his senior year.
There are only six players in state history to finish their careers with 3,000-plus points. The most recent one to do so was Jon Scheyer at Glenbrook North, who is the fifth all-time leading scorer in state history with 3,034 points.
If Davis were to stay healthy, continue to average 26 points a game over the remainder of his career and partake in a couple of lengthy state tournament runs, Davis could make a push to become the second all-time leading scorer in state history.
A bump in scoring would be needed to break the record of 3,358 career points, set in the 1950s by Charlie Vaughn of Tamms.