Semoball

Nolan Taylor a 'calming force' in Redhawks' win over Lipscomb

Southeast's Nolan Taylor handles the ball on his way to the basket against Lipscomb on Monday at the Show Me Center.
Tony Capobianco ~ tcapobianco@semoball.com

In what has been their best game of the young basketball season, the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks defeated the Lipscomb Bison 82-77 on Monday at the Show Me Center.

In the victory, the Redhawks are beginning to find their identity. A brand new team with a first year head coach in Brad Korn and many senior transfers, it’s quite impressive that the Redhawks have figured out an offensive formula with their limited time together prior to the season.

That is based on the buy-in Korn has earned from his players.

“We’ve just been very open, very honest, try to be clear and consistent with them so they know where I’m coming from,” Korn said. “There’s really no misinformation.

“A lot of times, we feel young people don’t know things,” he said. “They’re very, very smart. They can feel them. They can feel it from the beginning that we truly do care about them as people, not just basketball players.”

Chris Harris and Eric Reed Jr. both scored a team high 19 points but it starts with senior center Nolan Taylor, who finished the game with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

It’s his third game with double-digit points. He is averaging over 20 minutes per game this season, which is the most since his freshman year with Pepperdine, where he averaged 20.8 MPG in 24 games during the 2016-17 season.

“He’s kind of that calming force,” Korn said on Taylor. “If we get a little bit stuck, we can just dump it down to him and you’re gonna get a good shot. You got a great skip out late in the second half for a three. It was a rip and you end up getting a layup out of it. So he’s been very important from the standpoint from the standpoint that he’s stable.”

Lipscomb jumped to a 5-0 lead but Taylor got the Redhawks going with a defensive rebound and an assist to Nana Akenten, who’s three-pointer got SEMO on the board.

SEMO erased a 22-13 Lipscomb lead with a 13-2 run to take its first lead at 26-24. Led by Taylor’s 10 points, the Redhawks outrebounded the Bison 17-14 and went into halftime up 39-37.

At 6-7, Taylor is among the shortest centers in the nation, but he still has the size to be a presence in the post. All of his points come from the paint and his assists come creating second chance points on the rebound.

Taylor is on his third school. His last stop was at Cal Poly in the Big West, but he only played 14 games last season due to injury. He redshirted the previous year after transferring from Pepperdine, where his sophomore season ended in injury. He transferred to SEMO as a graduate transfer, which allowed him to play right away.

At 23 years of age, Taylor gives the Redhawks a much-needed senior presence.

"He’s older, obviously, and been through a lot of games," Korn said. "He’s been in a lot of different places. He just brings that older vibe. He doesn’t panic, never too high or too low. He’s kind of that calming force for us and to be able to have that in the interior is nice.”

Taylor’s point total has gone up each game since scoring 10 points against Kansas City in the season opener, but he has proven to be a safe bet to grab at least seven rebounds a game.

“I have to give him a lot of credit for what he’s been able to do from the time that he got here until now,” Korn said after SEMO’s loss to Southern Illinois last Wednesday. “He’s coming off of an injury, he’s put in a lot of work to get his body into shape to where he can play up and down [with] the minutes that he’s playing so I think he’ll continue to do that.”

The Redhawks will travel to Lipscomb on Wednesday for round 2. The two teams have never played before Monday and will now go back-to-back.

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