Last week, Lauryn Taylor broke her school’s rebounding record as well as set a new NCAA single-game record with 44 rebounds in a win over North Greenville, playing for Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C.
Taylor’s historic night broke a previous record of 32 rebounds by LaRue Fields in 1976, while setting a new college record across all three NCAA divisions (the previous record was 36 (Division II), 38 (Division III), and 40 in Division I. What was even more impressive was the 5’11” senior center grabbed 14 offensive rebounds and 30 on the defensive end.
“I didn’t realize I broke any record until midway through the third quarter,” said Taylor in an MSR phone interview, a day after she set the new mark. “I didn’t know I broke the national record until after the game at the [post-game] interview.”Francis Marion is a Division II public university, an 832-acre campus where 96 percent of its 4,045 student population comes from South Carolina—52 percent White, 37 percent Black, 17 percent Other.
Taylor joins FMU alum Pearl Moore in the record books—Moore is the all-time women’s basketball scorer (4,061 points) but her mark isn’t recognized by the NCAA since she played in the 1970s when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) ran women’s basketball. The NCAA took over in 1982. Taylor’s coach is Jeri Porter, now in her ninth season and has nearly 25 years of head coaching collegiate experience—11 at Division I and 12 at Division II.
The 48-season record once held by Fields, who later became the University of Minnesota’s first Black female head coach, was also a teammate of the then-senior Moore when she was a freshman.
Overlooked was the fact that Taylor also canned three 3s and finished the night with 34 points, a huge double-double. She also moved into ninth place on the school’s scoring list with 1,603 points and is now seventh on the Patriots’ all-time rebounding list with 948 rebounds.“I always knew that she was the one who held the record because every time somebody would bring up rebounding … they would bring up [Fields’] record 32,” admitted Taylor, who currently averages 15 rebounds a game—six times this season she’s had 19 or more in a contest.
The Blythewood, S.C. native told the MSR she’s very proud to be called a rebounder. She leads her team, the Conference Carolinas, and all Division II players nationwide. Taylor has won the conference’s weekly Player of the Week honors four times this season, most recently for the week of January 29-February 4.
Taylor also is a two-time all-conference selection, including last season’s Player of the Year honors. “It’s something that I like to do,” said Taylor on her steller board work. “I really just have a knack for it.”Taylor is majoring in psychology and a minor in sociology and is set to graduate this spring. However, she told me she plans to take her COVID year and play next season for Francis Marion.“So, I want to get my master’s degree in business administration next year,” stressed Taylor.
The Francis Marion Patriots have won 16 straight home games and are looking to improve on its second-place regular season finish last year and the conference tournament semifinals appearance. The Patriots reached the title game in 2021-22, the program’s first year as a member of the Conference Carolinas.
Taylor acknowledged the individual accolades and attention from what she accomplished last week but the senior pointed out she’d rather have the spotlight more on her team, which she said is a “really pretty good team.”
More importantly, Taylor wants the sports world to know that good basketball is indeed played in Division II and at small schools such as Francis Marion: “I really want people to understand that what that involved [basketball], the level of play [is] evolving in general at any school,” she said, “These women are doing [it] every day because we work just as hard as everyone else.“We just need to keep making noise and playing our game and doing [it] for the gangs in March when it really matters,” said Taylor.