Huntington's Sydney Taylor puts on show in front of friends family vs. Liberty at Barclays Center

Sydney Taylor’s parents were there at the Barclays Center Wednesday night, sitting in the fourth row behind the basket. Also, in the stands were her high school coach at St. Anthony’s and 30 of her closest friends and family.

The Chicago Sky’s rookie point guard clearly was pumped up to give her supporters a show, and she wasted no time doing that. In her first game ever at the Barclays Center, a place she used to go to cheer on the Liberty when she was growing up in Huntington, Taylor had a career-high 31 points as Chicago fell to the Liberty, 95-94.

It was the kind of hot-shooting performance that Taylor’s teammates have seen again and again to as the undrafted guard has become one of the WNBA’s biggest feel-good stories of the season.

Six months ago, Taylor was living in a small village in Poland, playing for a EuroLeague team, writing in her journal and hoping to get invited to a WNBA training camp in the spring. Today, she has general managers around the league scratching their head and wondering how she went undrafted out of Louisville two years ago.

The 25-year-old Taylor’s scoring average of 13.5 points per game entering Wednesday is the most by an undrafted rookie in WNBA history and ranks third among all WNBA rookies this season, behind No. 2 overall draft pick Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx and No. 8 overall pick Flau’jae Johnson of the Seattle Storm.

This was supposed to be a learning year for Taylor, one where she learned from the older more experienced players and got acclimated to the league. Instead, injuries and adversity, gave her an opportunity to show what she could do. After coming off the bench to score 30 points against Caitlin Clark and the Fever on June 12, Taylor was given the starting job and has never looked back.

Taylor has started all 14 games since that game with her first start coming in a loss to the Liberty where she scored 24 points and hit four three-pointers. She has played so well that Marsh now sees her as a go-to player. In Chicago’s 93-91 loss to the Atlanta Dream on Sunday, the team went to Taylor with seven seconds left. She knocked down a three to tie the score before Atlanta bounced back to win with a buzzer beater.

“As a fellow underdog, I think it’s sensational. I don’t think she’s talked enough about when it pertains to the rookies and how well they are playing,” teammate Natasha Cloud said. “She’s an amazing person and even a better player. Just at tough-nosed kid and is really ready for the moment.

“Talk about seizing the moment when your number is called. I think Syd is a prime example of that. She’s been called on to be a starter and one of our leading scorers. When you are talking about who deserves to be on the rookie of the year list. When you are talking about who should be in the conversation, you have to talk about Sydney Taylor. It’s not just the scoring and all that. It’s that the other team has to prepare for a rookie in Sydney Taylor every single night offensively for what she brings to the court. And when you’re a rookie and people are preparing for a rookie, that rookie should be that list.”

The Liberty looked like they could have prepared a little more considering the way she came out and attacked their defense early. After warming up an hour before the game, Taylor admitted to Newsday that she was a little awe-struck to be standing on the Barclays Center court.

“I’ve been to some Liberty games and I’ve been to some Nets games, but it’s definitely different being on the court,” she said. “It’s like wow, but I’m not nervous at all. I’m excited.”

So were her parents, Don Taylor and Sheri Lewis-Taylor. The couple recalled before the game how they had held their daughter’s 9-year-old birthday party at Madison Square Garden when the Liberty played there and how thrilled she was getting autographs from the players.

Now, it’s their daughter giving autographs for young fans and playing the game she grew up loving. Her perseverance and determination paid off.

“She didn’t get drafted. God gave her a different path to follow,” Lewis-Taylor said “And here she is.”