Tigers bounce back with balanced effort to take win out of Tallahassee |
Clemson men’s basketball rode a balanced scoring effort and one of the better defensive performances this season to a 78-67 win at Florida State on Saturday.
Ten different Tigers scored, tallying their most bench points in an ACC game and the second-most this season (28; had 37 versus Queens). Chase Hunter totaled 14 points, and PJ Hall with 13, Josh Beadle with a career-best 12, and Joseph Girard III, with 10, were the double-figure scorers. Clemson (13-5, 3-4 ACC) notched a first win away from Littlejohn Coliseum since December 9 (neutral site versus TCU). It was the third victory in a row over the Seminoles (11-7, 5-2). Clemson led for all of 36 seconds in the first half, but the Tigers battled back from down as much as eight to even the score into the break, 30-all. Part of that effort came from wing Jack Clark, who had missed a month and a half of action before this week (lower body injury), as he hit a 3-pointer and scored five points in the first half for his first points since Nov. 24 versus Alcorn State. Clark finished with seven points, adding seven rebounds, four assists and a steal over a season-high 21 minutes. "Welcome to the party, Jack Clark. Really happy for Jack," Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. "His experience was really good. His length with all the foul trouble really helped us. His poise was really good." Despite a 1-for-9 shooting spell, FSU led by three with 3:24 to go in the first half, but Girard’s first points of the game, on a three, tied the game up a minute later. The Tigers battled some early foul trouble and injury in the frontcourt, with Hall, Ian Schieffelin and RJ Godfrey all sitting with two fouls and then Bas Leyte suffering a shoulder/arm injury on a rebound late in the first half. Clemson scored the first bucket and the first seven points out of the break for its biggest lead yet. Chase Hunter tallied seven points in the second half by an 8-0 Tigers run that ran the lead out to nine with 11 and a half minutes left. The Seminoles went an over six-minute stretch without a made field goal in the second session and trailed by nine still with ten minutes to go. A Girard 3-pointer with under seven minutes left extended the Clemson lead to 11 points. Beadle’s layup and free throw with 3:24 to go made it a 13-point game, with Beadle matching a previous career-high in points on the possession (10 points). "I really kind of challenged our guys at halftime a little bit and I just told them, 'We've been here before, and the hardest part for us is the defense at that end away from the bench. Can you guys stay connected and competitive enough and have enough fight to hold them off -- because they're going to be coming running at us,'" Brownell said of the zone. "Then I said the second thing is our offensive execution against Florida State is vital and it's extremely difficult because of the way they play...We got to make them play half-court. I thought our offense in the second half was really good. We went to little bit more movement. Very few teams have done that against them and I thought that allowed us to move the ball a little bit. Then we made the right decisions after the movement." Clemson shot 51% from the field and made 21-of-25 free throws, while limiting FSU to 22% shooting from beyond the arc (4-18). Clemson used more zone defense in the game to help cool off the Seminoles attack, which had scored 75 or more points in five of the previous six games. "It was (effective). We had been talking about it," Brownell said. "Using it a little bit more...Our guys have gotten better this week defensively. We still have a ways to go and have limitations athletically. But just staying connected. Competing. Being a little smarter in our scouting stuff. We've made some errors there through the year that have been problematic, and just not wilting under pressure. "We need to continue to play our bench. Those guys have to keep earning minutes and being productive minutes so we can keep guys fresh. I do think there's been a stretch here that we've been tired. The main guys have been tired just because of the lack of bodies in practice and the lack of bodies in games, getting Jack Clark back is huge and then hopefully our bench continuing to grow and get better and get a little bit more confidence can give us a little shot in the arm here moving forward." The Tigers return to action next Saturday at No. 7 Duke (4 p.m./ESPN). CHEF SLAM DUNK 🔥 Pass the rock, hit the three. Shooting at a scorching 51.0% from the field, Clemson made it rain for a W! ☔@ClemsonMBB | #ACCMBB pic.twitter.com/LC17rnjaad Road dubs 😁 pic.twitter.com/RWXbl46dxu
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