Penn State surges past Mississippi State in NIT semis

[March 28, 2018]  Junior guard Tony Carr finished with 21 points, six rebounds and five assists as Penn State rolled to a 75-60 victory over Mississippi State Tuesday in the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Senior guard Shep Garner scored 18 points on six 3-pointers and became Penn State's all-time leader with 334 baskets from behind the arc. Sophomore forward Lamar Stevens added 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists as the Nittany Lions (25-13) took control with a 24-0 surge in the first half to cruise in the battle of No. 4 seeds.

Penn State will face second-seeded Utah in Thursday's NIT championship game.

Sophomore guard Tyson Carter scored 19 points and freshman forward Abdul Ado added 13 points and seven rebounds for Mississippi State (25-12). Junior forward Aric Holman added 10 points for the Bulldogs, who shot 38.9 percent from the field and 3 of 15 from 3-point range.

The Nittany Lions shot 50 percent from the field, including 11 of 20 from 3-point range. Garner was 6 of 9 and Carr hit 3 of 6 attempts from deep.

Mississippi State trailed 13-11 seven minutes into the game before Penn State exploded and drained six 3-pointers during the 24-0 burst.

Garner started the run with a 3-pointer and Carr added a jumper to give the Nittany Lions an 18-11 edge after one quarter. Stevens, Carr and junior guard Josh Reaves hit consecutive 3-pointers to boost the margin to 29-11 with 7:53 remaining.

Garner followed with back-to-back 3-pointers, the latter making it 37-11 with 5:57 left and tying the school's 3-point record set by Pete Lisicky (332 from 1994-98).

The Bulldogs broke their scoring drought of 7 minutes, 23 seconds when Ado hit a jumper with 5:32 remaining. That started a 12-5 run as Mississippi State cut its deficit to 42-23 at the break.

Garner drained his record-setting 3-pointer to make it 47-23 with 8:42 left in the third quarter. He hit his sixth of the game less than two minutes later to make it 52-25.

Penn State made 8 of 11 shots in the third quarter to lead 65-41 entering the fourth.

--Field Level Media

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