NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly a month after Penn State was bounced out of the Big Ten Tournament, the Nittany Lions are back at Madison Square Garden with another chance to win a championship.
Tony Carr scored 21 points, Shep Garner added 18 while breaking the school record for career 3-pointers and Penn State routed Mississippi State 75-60 in the National Invitation Tournament semifinals Tuesday night.
“Of course we were a little disappointed not to make the (NCAA) Tournament, but we made another goal,” Garner said. “We saw we were in the NIT and our goal was to get to New York and win it. That’s what everyone wants to do. We put ourselves in position to do so.”
The fourth-seeded Nittany Lions (25-13) will play No. 2 seed Utah for the title Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
After the score was tied 9-all, Penn State ended the first quarter on a 9-2 run. From there, the Nittany Lions opened the second with a 19-0 spurt capped by Garner’s 3 off an assist from Carr to make it 37-11.
With football coach James Franklin cheering from the stands, Penn State went up 42-23 at halftime and led by as many as 27.
Mississippi State (25-12) wasn’t able to get within 20 again until there was 7:56 left in the game. Abdul Ado’s dunk made it 65-47, but that was the closest the Bulldogs got before the waning moments.
“We were really impatient,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “Once we started falling behind, we got anxious and we were shooting quick. Quick, bad shots and it just like, snowballed.”
Tyson Carter scored 19 points off the bench to lead No. 4 seed Mississippi State. Ado had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Lamar Stevens scored 17 for Penn State, which shot 11 of 20 from 3-point territory. Carr had six assists and five rebounds.
BIG PICTURE
Penn State: While the Nittany Lions would have preferred to play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011, they made the NIT for the first time under seventh-year coach Pat Chambers. Penn State’s last trip to the NIT title game was in 2009, when it beat Baylor for the crown. The school’s only other appearance in the final was a loss to Minnesota in 1998.
Mississippi State: With just one senior on the roster, the Bulldogs will return most of their team and have something positive to build off as they try to move up the rankings in the rugged SEC next season.
RECORD PRODUCER
With his six 3-pointers, Garner broke Penn State’s record for 3s in an NIT along with the school mark of 332 held by Pete Lisicky (1995-98). Garner also had six 3s in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal loss to Purdue, giving him 12 in his last two games at Madison Square Garden and 334 for his career.
“They say the record is an individual record, but I’ve had a lot of teammates that had a lot to do with the record,” Garner said. “A lot of people that set screens for me to get me open, break passes to them, they put it right on the button for me and I just finish the job. That’s a team record. It’s a lot of people that had stuff to do with it. I tip my hat to my teammates and my coaches to put me in a position to do something special like that.”
UP NEXT
Penn State: Will try to win the second NIT championship in school history when it faces Utah (23-11), which beat Western Kentucky 69-64 in the first semifinal.
Mississippi State: Starts preparing for a promising 2018-19 season.
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