Thursday night was a historic one for college basketball.
In an 85-62 win over North Greenville, Francis Marion center Lauryn Taylor set the women’s NCAA record for all divisions with 44 rebounds.
Taylor, a 5-foot-11 senior plays for a Division II team. She snagged 30 defensive boards, while the other 14 came on offense. With Taylor all over the boards, North Greenville didn’t get a single second-chance point.
She breezed by the previous Division II mark of 36 set by Christine DeSaine of West Virginia Tech against Ohio Valley in 1995. The Division I record she broke stood for even longer, set by Deborah Temple of Delta State’s 40 boards vs. Alabama-Birmingham on Feb. 14, 1983. The Division III record is 38 rebounds.
Men’s college basketball has only seen one player top Taylor’s rebounding in a single game: Bill Chambers of DI William & Mary. He recorded 51 boards against Virginia in 1953.
Francis Marion sports celebrated the mark, which also beat the school record of 32 set by LaRue Fields in a 1976 win against South Carolina. Taylor followed the trend Wilt Chamberlain set after his 100-point performance in 1962, holding a piece of paper inscribed with “44” for postgame photos.
Taylor already had 25 boards by the end of the first half of the contest. The record broke down to 16 rebounds in the first quarter, nine in the second, eight in the third and 11 in the fourth.
She added to her historic performance by notching a career-high of 34 points for her 18th double-double of the season. She went 11 of 27 from the field, which featured 50% accuracy on six three-pointers.
Something was in the air, as Thursday night also saw Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark claim the NCAA women’s basketball all-time scoring record while eclipsing her personal single-game scoring mark.
Taylor’s big game came after she’s led Francis Marion with 18.5 points and 15.0 rebounds per game all season, giving her the highest rebounding average in DII women’s hoops.
For her, basketball runs in the family. From Blythewood, South Carolina, she is the daughter of the late Rodney Taylor. He was part of the 1988 Villanova squad that advanced to the Elite Eight.
Source Agencies
