Grinnell College guard Jack Taylor eclipses 100 points for the second time
Not many players have ever scored 100 or more points in a game at any level of basketball.
Grinnell College's Jack Taylor has now done it twice.
Three hundred sixty-two days after he set the single-game collegiate scoring record by erupting for an unimaginable 138 points in a victory over Faith Baptist Bible College, Taylor eclipsed the century mark again. The 5-foot-10 guard from Black River Falls, Wis. scored 109 points on Sunday afternoon in a 173-123 rout of Crossroads College.
"Just like last year, I couldn't have done this without my teammates," Taylor said in a release issued by the school. "I give so much credit to them – this truly was a team effort. I'm thankful for the program the people I have playing around me."
Whereas Grinnell typically will have 12 to 15 players log 10 to 15 minutes per game to keep them fresh enough to thrive in the school's trademark pressing, run-and-gun system, occasionally the Pioneers will alter that approach. They'll let one player log 28 to 35 minutes against an overmatched opponent and seldom run back on defense in an effort to take aim at individual scoring records.
Two years ago, Grinnell's Griffin Lentsch shattered the Division III scoring record with 89 points. Last November, Taylor scored his 138 points by attempting 108 of his team's 136 shots and hitting a respectable 52 of them. And on Friday, Taylor opened the new season by ringing up 71 points on 52 shots.
In many ways, Taylor's performance Sunday was as impressive as any of those previous ones simply because of how efficient he was from the field. In 29 minutes, he made 11 of 22 shots from inside the arc, 24 of 48 3-pointers and 15 of 17 from the free throw line to eclipse every previous scoring total by a college player besides his own record from last year and the 113 points Rio Grande's Clarence "Bevo" Francis scored against Hillsdale College in 1954.
The Division I record remains the 100 points that Furman's Frank Selvy scored against Newberry College, also in 1954.
Taylor, just a junior, has lots of games left in a Grinnell jersey over the next 16 months or so. That likely means another chance or two to take a shot at becoming a three-time member of the exclusive century club.
