By LUKE MEREDITH
AP Sports Writer
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.
AP Sports Writer Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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