After a poor shooting weekend, Grinnell guard Jack Taylor was given the green light to shoot his way out of a slump.
It only took 108 shots for Taylor to make a mockery of the college basketball record books.
Taylor scored 138 points to shatter the NCAA scoring record in Division III Grinnell’s 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible on Tuesday night in Grinnell, Iowa.
Taylor, a 5-foot-10, 170-pound sophomore from Black River Falls, Wis., made 27 of 71 3-point attempts, was 52 of 108 overall from the field and added seven free throws on 10 attempts in 36 minutes.
“It felt like anything I tossed up was going in,” Taylor told The Associated Press.
Rio Grande’s Bevo Francis 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.
Under coach David Arseneault, the Pioneers press and shoot 3s like nobody else in the country in any level. They’ve led the nation in scoring for 17 of the past 19 seasons while ranking first nationally in 3-point shooting for the 15 of those past 19 years. But none of them have had a night quite like Taylor — who never saw this coming.
Taylor recently transferred to Grinnell, located about 50 miles east of Des Moines, after playing one season for Wisconsin-La Crosse. He struggled in his debut at the nearby Wartburg Tournament over the weekend by hitting only 11 of 41 shots — including only 6 of 34 3-point attempts Still, he averaged 23.5 points a game.
But Taylor started Tuesday’s night game off slow — at least according to his standards. His coaches figured the best way to get him on track was for him to keep chucking, so that’s what Taylor did.
“Maybe my cold shooting from the weekend was affecting me,” Taylor said. “But then they started to drop.”
Taylor had 58 points at halftime.
Then he got hot.
Taylor was 32 of 58 shooting — including 18 3s — in the final 20 minutes and averaged an astounding four points a minute in the second half.
“I don’t think reality has set in yet,” Taylor said.
Faith Baptist’s David Larson also had a big game, scoring 70 points on 34-of-44 shooting.
Carmelo Anthony and the New York Knicks were amazed by Taylor’s feat when they heard about it after their victory in New Orleans.
“I never heard of nothing like that. That’s like a video game,” Anthony said, an incredulous look on his face. “How can you shoot 100 times, though?”
He joked that from now on when someone asks if he’s taking too many shots, he’ll mention “that someone shot it 108 times.”
Raymond Felton also was astounded by the 108 shots.
“His elbow has got to be sore,” Felton said.
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