Warren's Jaxson Davis passes 2,000 points and nears Lake County scoring record

There’s a recent history of big-time scorers in Lake County, with eight different players surpassing 2,000 career points since 2000.

Sensational Stevenson point guard Jalen Brunson set the county scoring record with 2,682 points from 2011 to 2015, breaking the mark that Zion-Benton forward Milik Yarbrough set a year earlier. Brunson went on to become an All-American at Villanova and is now an NBA All-Star with the Knicks.

Now Warren guard Jaxson Davis is in hot pursuit.

The junior guard eclipsed the 2,000-point mark last week and is on pace to crush the Lake County record. He just passed Mundelein’s Robert Knar (2009-2013) to move into ninth place on the list and will overtake Waukegan’s Bryant Brown (2015-2019) this week.

“The [2,000] number means a lot, just knowing so many players struggle to make it to 1,000,” Davis said. “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 and what’s expected to be a long postseason run ahead, Davis should finish in March with at least 2,250 points — roughly 430 short of the record. Given the expansion of the high school schedule over the years — up to as many as 31 regular-season games from the 25 that were allowed decades ago — he could break the record by midseason as a senior. He’s also is on pace to be Lake County’s first 3,000-point scorer.

Despite being a scoring machine, he remains an unselfish player and a master facilitator, slinging pinpoint passes with a penchant for putting his teammates in better position to score. He says he thinks about his basketball future when blending his scoring and his distributing.

“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.”

Only six players in state history have finished their high school career with 3,000 or more points. The most recent was Glenbrook North guard Jon Scheyer — now the head coach at Duke — who’s fifth on the list with 3,034.

If Davis stays healthy, continues to average 26 points per game and enjoys a couple of deep state tournament runs with the Blue Devils, he could become the second all-time scorer in state history, although it would take quite a leap for him to reach the record of 3,358 set by Charlie Vaughn of far downstate Tamms in the 1950s.