The lowest scoring game in DI men’s college basketball history happened Dec. 15, 1973, when Tennessee beat Temple, 11-6.
Temple held the ball for long stretches to run out the clock. Tennessee didn’t come out of its zone. More on that game in a bit.
First, here the fewest points scored by both teams in a game since 1938:
| POINTS | TEAMS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | Tennessee 11, Temple 6 | Dec. 15, 1973 |
| 22 | NC State 12, Duke 10 | Mar. 8, 1968 |
| 25 | Oklahoma State 14, Oklahoma 11 | Feb. 19, 1944 |
| 27 | Penn State 15, Pittsburgh 12 | Jan. 15, 1944 |
| 32 | Oklahoma State 17, Arkansas 15 | Jan. 28, 1944 |
| 33 | Penn State 24, Pittsburgh 9 | Mar. 1, 1952 |
| 33 | Charleston 18, Charleston Southern 15 | Feb. 6, 1980 |
| 34 | Oregon State 18, Stanford 16 | Jan. 28, 1980 |
| 35 | Kentucky 24, Cincinnati 11 | Dec. 20, 1983 |
| 36 | Purdue 23, Illinois 13 | Feb. 7, 1938 |
| 37 | Tennessee 23, Alabama 14 | Jan. 11, 1945 |
| 37 | Tennessee Tech 21, Vanderbilt 16 | 1938 |
| 38 | Marshall 22, Miami (OH) 16 | Feb. 19, 1938 |
RANKED TEAMS: The 100 lowest scoring college basketball games by ranked teams in the shot clock era
These are the fewest points scored by both teams in a game since the 1985-1986 season (when the shot clock was implemented):
| POINTS | TEAMS | DATE |
|---|---|---|
| 62 | Monmouth 41, Princeton 21 | Dec. 14, 2005 |
| 65 | Manhattan 34, Fairfield 31 | Mar. 1, 2013 |
| 67 | SMU 36, Texas-Arlington 31 | Dec. 16, 1989 |
| 67 | Green Bay 46, Northern Michigan 21 | Nov. 22, 1996 |
| 67 | Eastern Michigan 42, Northern Illinois 25 | Jan. 26, 2013 |
| 68 | George Mason 35, UNC Wilmington 33 | Mar. 4, 2001 |
| 69 | George Washington 49, Saint Louis 20 | Jan. 10, 2008 |
| 69 | Penn State 36, Wisconsin 33 | Mar. 11, 2011 |
| 69 | Fresno State 39, UC Riverside 30 | Nov. 14, 2012 |
| 71 | Penn State 38, Illinois 33 | Feb. 18, 2009 |
| 71 | Virginia 45, Rutgers 26 | Nov. 29, 2014 |
| 71 | Virginia Tech 47, NC State 24 | Feb. 2, 2019 |
The 11-6 game between Tennessee and Temple came down to more than bad shooting — the teams just flat out didn’t play.
The lack of a shot clock allowed the ball to be held for multiple stretches of more than 10 minutes with nothing but unavailing passes between two players and the odd soda cup thrown from the rowdiest of the 11,700 fans in attendance. Temple was content to hold the ball while Tennessee stayed in a zone.
Here’s how the game was covered at the time.
From the Knoxville News:
From the UPI:
And the Johnson City Press:
