11-18. That was the men’s basketball record at the end of the 2023-24 season. Under first-year head coach Austin Peters, the Trojans have improved to 13-11 with four games left.
The Trojans are tied for sixth place with Indiana Wesleyan in the Crossroads League with a conference record of 6-8. Of those 14 conference games, four have gone to overtime with the Trojans winning three.
One key factor to the Trojan’s success this season has been their efficiency from behind the arc. As a team, they are splashing it in from deep at a 38.7% clip.
The Trojans boast the top three-point shooters in the CL. Junior guard Jackson Ullom, junior forward Nate Paarlberg, and senior guard Kaden Furhmann are shooting 46.9%, 43.9% and 42.3% from three, respectively.
A key leader for Taylor has been junior guard, Chaz Harvey, who transferred from Pace University. Averaging 11.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists a game, he is the piston that drives this explosive Taylor offense that averages 81.6 points per game.
“I’ve got guys around me who are great players,” Harvey said. “They (teammates) get out and run in transition and they find the right spots.”
One of those teammates is senior forward Anton Webb who has been collecting accolades this year like a gold miner. He reached the 1,000 career point mark in the purple and grey against Mount Vernon Nazarene on Jan. 29. Webb has also added three CL Player of the Week honors along with an NAIA Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week award.
Webb is averaging a double-double with 17.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. He leads the team in both categories.
“Coach Peters challenged me this year to not take any plays off,” Webb said. “Especially as a senior, all eyes are on you so I’ve just been trying to get better every day.”
Getting one percent better every day is instilled in Peters’ team philosophy. Compared to last season, the Trojans are scoring 10 more points per game,improved their field goal percentage from 44.8 to 49.6, and improved their three-point percentage from 33.8 to 38.7.
“If you’re always looking at the past or always looking at the future and not focusing on the present, you’re going to cheat the process,” Peters said. “As a team, we are going to focus on today and taking it one game at a time.”
The Trojans have just four games left in a highly contested CL where just No. 12 Grace, No. 10 Bethel and No. 14 Huntington have clinched their spots in the CL tournament.
As fate would have it, Taylor still has Bethel and Huntington on the schedule, as well as Goshen.
Taylor’s next game will be a home matchup with the Huntington Foresters on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 pm.
