Grinnell College’s Jack Taylor broke the NCAA record for most points scored in a game on Tuesday, netting 138 points and carrying the Grinnell Pioneers to a 179-104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible.
Bevo Francis held the previous record for almost 50 years, scoring 113 points for Rio Grande against Hillsdale in 1954.
Taylor also broke his teammate Griffin Lentsch’s Division III record, 89 points, set over a year ago. Lentsch only scored 7 points this game.
Faith Baptist Bible’s David Larson, meanwhile, finished with a whopping 70 points.
Taylor shot 71 3-pointers in only 36 minutes in Tuesday’s game. He finished 52-for-108 from the field, and 27-for-71 from a 3-point range.
After three games, the sophomore guard has scored 185 points in total, averaging 61.7 points per game.
“I don’t think reality has really set in yet,” Taylor said.
“I think it definitely will in the next few days. I can’t really get my mind around it right now,” he added.
Grinnell typically doesn’t run any play for more than about 20 minutes, but the offense was changed Tuesday to help Taylor.
“I felt pretty confident tonight. Most of my shots were off the dribble, in isolation, from the perimeter, and that’s kind of my game, working off the dribble,” Taylor told ESPN.
“The team was very unselfish and actually told me they’re going to keep feeding me the ball and keep riding the wave,” he continued. “I appreciate their unselfishness.”