Grinnell College is at it again.
The small Division III school in central Iowa set another wild college basketball record on Thursday night. The Pioneers shot an NCAA men’s basketball record 111 3-pointers in their 124-67 win over Emmaus Bible College.
Every single shot the team attempted came from behind the arc at Darby Gymnasium. They finished shooting 40-of-111 from the field, and even shot 51.1% from the field in the second half. Their only other points came from the free throw line.
“It was something that I had wondered if it was possible for probably the last decade, just thinking about it, exactly how it would work, would it be actually even feasible to do this for an entire game and if you did it, what would your shooting percentage look like what could potentially be some of the other benefits in trying to play a game where you only attempted 3-point shots,” said Grinnell coach David Arseneault Jr., via The Des Moines Register’s Tommy Birch. “It was certainly an interesting experiment.”
Adam Phillips led the Pioneers on Thursday night with 36 points after shooting 12-of-24 from the field, and Moze Thurmgreene made eight 3-pointers to put up 24 points.
“I can’t believe nobody stepped on the line while taking a 3,” Arseneault Jr. said, via The Des Moines Register. “Or somebody, just in kind of the moment when getting an offensive rebound just immediately flip it back up there real quick.”
While making 40 3-pointers in a game is impressive, it was just shy of that NCAA record. The Pioneers actually hold the top mark at 42 in a single game, which they hit against Emmaus in 2018.
The Pioneers have set several records in recent years while running “The System,” which focuses mainly on taking 3-pointers and layups only. Guard Jack Taylor set a NCAA record in 2012 when he scored 138 points in a single game. He put up 109 in a game in 2013, too.