Taylor with commemorative ball for 1000 points.
By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — The old Chinese proverb says that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
That’s been the case for Salisbury senior guard Braylon Taylor. Taylor was a Hornet jayvee as a freshman, but he logged his first two varsity points when he got into a blowout game against Lexington. That humble starting point has led step-by-step to lofty goals and accomplishments.
The 6-foot-2 Taylor has been a model of consistency the last three seasons for head coach Albert Perkins. He averaged 10.3 points as a sophomore, scoring 320 points. As a junior, he bumped his scoring to 521 points and averaged 17.4 per game.
As a senior, he’s already taken the final steps toward being a 1,000-point scorer. He breezed past the milestone against North Rowan in the first round of the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Classic. He scored 69 points in the tournament and took home MVP honors after the Hornets claimed their third straight title. Taylor is averaging 19.1 points this season, third in the county behind Carson’s CP Perry and North’s Carter Williams.
Taylor’s career total heading into Friday’s game with Robinson is 1,070 points … and counting. There may be a lot more coming.
“Teams scout now to try to keep Braylon from scoring,” Perkins said. “But he has been not only our primary scorer, he is a guard who also can facilitate plays for his teammates. He’s a true combo guard.”
In the long history of Salisbury boys basketball, Taylor is only the 13th to score 1,ooo points. That short list includes Frank McRae (Class of 1952) and Eddie Kesler (Class of 1960), deceased legends who became ACC stars in sports other than basketball. They accomplished the feat when the school was still known as Boyden High.
Taylor, assuming good health the rest of this season, is going to finish very high on the program’s all-time scoring list. He is currently 11th. The only players who are definitely out of reach are the top three — Juke Harris, Bobby Phillips and Bobby Jackson.
“I’ve worked on my game a lot, and I’ve also gotten taller and stronger,” Taylor said. “I have a lot of confidence that I can score the ball, and I’m able to do it at all three levels. I can attack defenses in a lot of different ways.”
There are athletes in Taylor’s family. A cousin on his father’s side is Zeek Biggers, the 6-foot-6 rookie defensive lineman for the Miami Dolphins who played football and basketball at West Rowan.
Taylor’s father, Bradley, was a good player for the SHS Hornets in the 1990s. He was a teammate of Phillips on coach Sam Gealy’s 1993-94 team that won 20 games. Bradley scored a career-best 20 in a win against Albemarle.
Bradley is in the Winston-Salem State University Athletics Hall of Fame. He was a member of legendary basketball teams coached by Rick Duckett that won CIAA Tournaments in 1999 and 2000 and have been inducted into the Hall. The Rams were 23-6 and 26-4 those two seasons.
The Taylors are a family noted for musicians, singers and ministers. Bradley’s degree from WSSU is in Business Administration/ He’s had successful careers as a banker, and then as a minister.
Bradley’s oldest son, Justin, who is usually called JT, is known to Rowan County American Legion baseball fans, as he was sensational when he joined the team in the summer of 2023. He socked a memorable, soaring grand slam on Father’s Day.
JT missed almost all of the 2024 college season with an injury, but his baseball career is still on an upward trajectory. He did quite well as a redshirt freshman second baseman for North Carolina A&T last spring, hitting 11 homers. JT followed up that success with an all-star summer in a college wood bat league. He had 35 hits and 35 walks in a 40-game season, with 22 steals and a .423 on-base percentage.
But Braylon has chosen a different path to college athletics than JT.
“Growing up, I played football, baseball and basketball,” Braylon said. “But basketball was always my favorite because that was my dad’s game.”
He competed for those local Team F.L.Y. (For Love of Youth) squads from an early age, playing with current teammate Jon Ross and also with boys who are now adversaries such as Carson’s Jacob Mills and Drew Neve. The Salisbury-Carson battles have been fierce the last two seasons, but there’s always mutual respect between those players. They go way back.
As a sophomore, Taylor was the key new face on a seasoned Salisbury team that featured current Wake Forest star Harris. Taylor fit in nicely on a 27-4 team and scored in double figures 15 times.
“He played his role well,” Perkins said.
When Taylor was a junior,the Hornets no longer had Harris, but senior transfer Myles Smith, who is getting significant minutes now as a Belmont Abbey freshman, was nearly as devastating as Juke had been. A football injury to point guard Bryce Dalton impacted Taylor’s season.
“We needed Braylon to score more as a junior, but we also had to ask him to be our primary point guard and to create for his teammates,” Perkins said.
Taylor handled the additional responsibility smoothly for a 26-4 team. He was a consistently solid scorer. He was in double figures 29 times in 30 games, and he topped 20 points a dozen times.
The Hornets have played a wicked schedule so far this season, but they are 9-3 and players have developed in recent weeks to give them more depth.
It’s helped the Hornets immensely that Ross is making a super comeback as a senior, but Taylor is shouldering a serious load as both the primary ball-handler and scorer. He’s the guy teams know they have to contain, the guy they plan to stop, but that’s easier said than done. He’s been in double figures in all 12 games, and he’s scored 20-plus five times. He had a career-high 27 in the Moir championship game, including two free throws late in the regulation that sent the game to overtime.
“Braylon has excelled in every role we’ve ever asked of him and he’s been a great teammate,” Perkins said. “He has a true basketball gift and he has worked to develop a strong skill set. He can score in so many ways, and he continues to develop as a leader. That leadership shows up in different ways at different times for this team. He would usually give me one-word answers as a sophomore. Now we carry on full conversations. He’s growing, on and off the court.”
Taylor said he’s starting to hear from colleges, including Winston-Salem State.
One of the schools that is high on his list — Catawba — gave him his first official offer on Thursday.
“The focus now is to help lead this team to another great season,” Taylor said. “I don’t worry about things I can’t control. As long as I keep playing well, I know everything will work out.”
