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Mitchell Northam | NCAA.com | February 16, 2019

Chris Clemons scores 39 in Campbell win to pass Larry Bird, Tyler Hansbrough in all-time scoring

Campbell's Chris Clemons speaks with Andy Katz after becoming 9th DI player to reach 3,000 points

Is there a game that goes by where Chris Clemons doesn’t make some sort of college basketball history? Apparently not.

Larry Legend and Psycho T: move over.

Clemons, the senior guard of the Campbell Fighting Camels, scored 39 points on Saturday, leading his team to a 83-62 win over Longwood. That total moved the 5-9 human highlight factory into 13th on the NCAA Division I all-time scoring list, pushing him past Indiana State’s Larry Bird and North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough.

By passing Hansbrough, Clemons becomes the state of North Carolina’s all-time Division I leading scorer. Clemons also scored 15 more points than N.C. State did as a team on Saturday.

With 2,875 career points, Clemons needs nine to pass Houston’s Elvin Hayes, 39 to reach Loyola Chicago’s Alfredrick Hughes and 76 to pass Kansas’ Danny Manning for 10th place. Clemons needs 125 points to join the exclusive eight-member 3,000-point club.

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Clemons is now averaging 29.2 points per game this year. With eight regular season games left — and potentially more contests for the Camels in March — Clemons should be able to pass that mark with ease.

The native of Raleigh, North Carolina went 12-of-21 from the floor on Saturday, and 10 of those shots were 3-pointers. But Clemons doesn’t generate all of his points from the outside. He can get in the paint and dunk with the big fellas too.

 

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Clemons also tallied four rebounds and five assists in the win. Teammate Cory Gensler chipped in 14 points. As a team, Campbell set a Gore Arena record for most made 3-pointers in a single game, swishing 17 shots from behind the arc.

With the win, the Fighting Camels are now 13-9 overall and 6-2 in Big South play. Ahead of them in the standings is Radford, which suffered its only conference loss earlier this week when Clemons nailed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Up next for Clemons and the Camels is a road test at High Point on Feb. 7.

Mitchell Northam is a graduate of Salisbury University. His work has been featured at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Orlando Sentinel, SB Nation, FanSided, USA Today and the Delmarva Daily Times. He grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore and is now based in Durham, N.C.

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