Division III Grinnell point guard Jack Taylor, set an NCAA record Tuesday night, scoring 138 points in a 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible.
“I gotta thank the man upstairs,” Taylor told ESPN. “I was able to multiply my talents tonight.”
Taylor went 52-for-108 from the field, while shooting 27-for-71 from the 3-point line to establish the new collegiate record.
The previous NCAA scoring record was held by Bevo Francis of Rio Grande, who had 113 points against Hillsdale in 1954. In 1953, Francis dropped 116 points against Ashland Junior College. Frank Selvy is only other person to come close to Francis’ record; he scored 100 points while playing at Furman against Newberry.
As the 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore entered the locker room at halftime, he was under the assumption that he had managed to drop 30 points in the first half. But coach David Arseneault informed Taylor otherwise, after taking a look at the first half stats.
“Coach walked in with a stat sheet and said I had 58,” Taylor said. “You could see the team’s eyes light up.”
After the half, Taylor was given the green light to shoot by Arseneault and his teammates to break the record set by Francis. He came out focused and in the zone.
“There was a point during the second half where I hit a number of threes in a row — maybe seven or eight — I felt like anything I threw up was going in,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in the zone before but I’ve never taken so many shots.”
One of the underlying stories in Taylor’s spectacular performance was Faith Baptist Bible’s David Larson, who scored 70 points on 34-for-44 shooting.
Taylor said that their focus was to stop Larson, which they did, but Bible could not stop Taylor.
Before entering Tuesday’s game Taylor was in a shooting slump, only making 11 of 41 shots for the season. After taking a “couple hundred” shots before practice on Sunday and Monday, he seemed to have found his stroke.
“I was able to, I guess, find my shot again,” Taylor said.
Despite receiving the attention for the Pioneers win, he was the ultimate sport by sharing the victory with his teammates. Taylor acknowledged his teammates for being unselfish the whole night.
He still has not been able to take in his record breaking performance.
“I don’t think it’s settled in yet,” he said.
