by Tommy Birch, USA TODAY Sports
Jack Taylor thought his cold shooting from the weekend was spilling into the week.
Turns out, Taylor was about to heat up.
The
Grinnell College sophomore guard scored an NCAA-record 138 points
during the Pioneers' 179-104 win Tuesday night against Faith Baptist
Bible College in an Iowa-school Division III matchup.
"I don't
think reality has really set in yet," Taylor said after the game. "I
think it definitely will in the next few days. I can't really get my
mind around it right now."
Taylor, a 5-10, 170-pound guard from
Black River Falls, Wisconsin, shot 52-of-108 from the field, 27-of-71
from 3-point range, and 7-of-10 from the free-throw line to finish with
the historic, head-shaking line of 138 points.
The 138 points
passed Clarence "Bevo" Francis who held both the NCAA and collegiate
scoring mark when he dropped 113 points for Rio Grande College of Ohio
vs. Hillside in 1954.
"It's kind of a life-changing moment," Grinnell coach David Arseneault said.
By the end of the night, Taylor was the center of attention, not just in Iowa, but throughout country.
"Jack Taylor you deserve a shot of Jack Daniels after that performance lol...wow" Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant tweeted.
While the 138 points drew national attention, the 108 shot attempts equally stood out.
The New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony was stunned when he heard the news after his team's victory over the New Orleans Hornets.
"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?"
"His elbow has got to be sore," Knicks teammate Raymond Felton joked.
Kobe
Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was impressed. "That's crazy," he
said. "I don't care what level you're at, you score 138 points, it's
pretty insane."
Faith Baptist, located in Ankeny, Iowa, is a
member of the Midwest Christian College Conference. The schedule on the
school website listed the Grinnell game as an "exhibition." But
according to Grinnell sports information director Ted Schultz, the game
"absolutely" is official and the record will count. Schultz said because
of conference rules on the number of games a team can play, Faith
Baptist has to list some as exhibitions. Schultz said Grinnell has
encountered this before but did check with its conference, the Midwest,
on Tuesday morning to confirm the game counted. "It's an exhibition for
them, but not for us," he said.
Taylor's performance overshadowed a 70-point night for David Larsen of Faith Baptist.
Not
all were impressed by the feat, however. ESPN's Stuart Scott tweeted:
"Not a big fan of Jack Taylor's 138-pts in Grinnell win. He took
108-shots including 71-3's...Just say that out loud. Now say "team"!"
Things
didn't start off so hot for Taylor, who missed his first four shots and
began worrying his struggles from a weekend tournament had carried over
into Tuesday. During the weekend, Taylor combined to shoot just
11-of-41 from the field in a pair of games.
"The coaches and my teammates wanted to get me going tonight," Taylor said.
Once he got going, Taylor never really stopped, scoring 58 points in the first half.
Taylor,
who said his previous high was 48 during a high school game, didn't
realize how many points he had at the half until Arseneault walked in
with the stat sheet.
"I thought I had around 30 points," Taylor
said. "And (then) coach came in and said I had 58. That started to make
me realize that it could be a special night."
Things really began to sink in during the second half when fans began chanting Taylor's name in the closing minutes.
"I figured I probably had a lot of points at that time," he said.
Arseneault,
in his 24th season at Grinnell, has started a scoring revolution with a
system of rapid movement, 3-pointer free-for-alls, and substitutions
swiftly moving into the game like hockey line shifts.
Grinnell is located off Interstate 80 between Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
In
2011, Grinnell's Griffin Lentsch set an NCAA Division III single-game
scoring record with 89 points in a game against Principia. Lentsch came
off the bench to score seven points Tuesday.
The center of
attention entering the game was getting Taylor, who finished with three
rebounds in 36 minutes, back on track. He eventually did.
"He could have thrown it up with one hand and it would have gone in by the end of the game," Arseneault said.
"I am very exhausted," Taylor said.
Birch writes for The Des Moines Register
Contributing: David Leon Moore in Los Angeles and the Associated Press