No. 22 Bulldogs set school record with 19 made 3-pointers

NEWARK, N.J. — Mississippi State planted the seeds for its school-record 19 made 3-pointers with hard work over the summer.

“Our guys, I’m telling you right now, I’ve never had a team collectively work harder at shooting than our guys did this last offseason,” coach Ben Howland said.

Lamar Peters scored 28 points and was 8 of 11 from beyond the arc, leading No. 22 Mississippi State to a wire-to-wire 82-71 win over Clemson in the Never Forget Tribute Classic on Saturday.

Quinndary Weatherspoon added 20 points for Mississippi State, which shot 63 percent from 3-point range.

Clemson (6-3) got 23 points from Aamir Simms and 18 points from Elijah Thomas. The Tigers were without their leading scorer, Marcquis Reed, who averages 19.4 points per game. He suffered a knee sprain in the last minute of Clemson’s previous game against St. Peter’s on Tuesday.

Weatherspoon’s 3-pointer from the top of the key put Mississippi State ahead 74-60 with 6:13 remaining, capping a 9-0 run. Clemson did not get closer than eight points the rest of the way after closing within five points a few times earlier in the second half.

“They really were packing it in today. We were expecting that,” Howland said. “They were looking at our 3-point percentage (32 percent) this season, and they thought, W`e’re going to play off them and pack it in.’ And that’s what they did. They were going under and around ball screens. You take what the defense gives you. Basically, what the defense was giving us today were 3s.”