When I woke up this morning and turned on ESPN, I had to do a triple take to make sure I was seeing this right. This is crazy!
Grinnell’s Jack Taylor didn’t just amend the NCAA’s record books when he scored 138 points — a new collegiate high mark — in his team’s 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible Tuesday night. The Division III star wrote a new chapter.
“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.”
Bevo Francis of Rio Grande held the NCAA scoring record with 113 points against Hillsdale in 1954. In 1953, Francis had 116 against Ashland Junior College. Frank Selvy is the only other player to reach triple figures, scoring 100 points for Division I Furman against Newberry in 1954.
The previous Grinnell record was 89 by Griffin Lentsch last Nov. 19 against Principia.
Taylor said he entered the locker room at halftime under the assumption he’d racked up 30 points in the first half. But when head coach David Arseneault whipped out the first-half stat sheet, he realized he was mistaken.
“Coach walked in with a stat sheet and said I had 58,” Taylor said. “You could see the team’s eyes light up.”
By the end of the night, Taylor was 52-for-108 (27-for-71 from the 3-point line) and he’d established a new collegiate record.
Before his squad took the floor Tuesday night, Taylor met with a few teammates for a pregame devotional. It was the first time that Taylor, a sophomore at the Division III school, had ever read Bible verses with other players prior to tipoff.
They focused on Matthew 25, a chapter that features a parable about the value of talents.
“I gotta thank the man upstairs,” Taylor said. “I was able to multiply my talents tonight.”
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WRITTEN BY Myron Medcalf | ESPN.com & FULL STORY HERE
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Video Via FoxSports
