Clemson basketball will travel to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to face the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night.
The final game of the regular season for the Tigers (21-9, 11-8 ACC) will provide the most weight in a game this season. With a win over the Demon Deacons on Saturday, the team will finish in the top-4 of the ACC regular season, which would grant the team a double-bye in the ACC Tournament, which begins next week.
A loss does not guarantee that the team will fall short of this position, however, as other ACC games could hold a lot of power in how the conference finishes up this season with the final game of in-conference play occurring on Saturday.
In one of their best in-conference stretches of games this season, Clemson has won seven of their last nine games, which has helped them remain an NCAA Tournament team. The team remains a No. 5 seed in the field, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. A win over a battle-tested Wake Forest team could help propel them into a top-4 seed in the Big Dance.
Head coach Brad Brownell and his team are coming off of an important win over Syracuse on Tuesday night, which finished out their home games for the season. Brownell liked what he saw from his squad in the win.
“Our guys played very well,” the Clemson head coach said. “We kept our turnovers down, and had good balance [and] great efficiency.”
The Tigers saw a great performance offensively, when four starters scored 15 points of more. Leading the charge was center PJ Hall, who was honored before the game for Senior Night. The senior standout scored 25 points and added seven rebounds in the win.
While the wear-and-tear of the season is very present for the team, especially during this stretch of games, Hall was able to fight off the soreness and lingering injuries, helping lead the team to complete the sweep against the Orange.
“These guys were focused and we were down a couple of numbers,” he explained. “It was tough to go really hard, but we had everybody back.”
On the other side, head coach Steve Forbes and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will most likely be playing for a bubble team berth on Saturday night, losing three straight games against ACC opponents. The team now sits in Lunardi’s “Next Four Out”, being a week removed from being a comfortable team in the mix.
After blowing out PIttsburgh and upsetting Duke, the Demon Deacons have suffered losses to Notre Dame, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, leaving them a game behind the Tigers for the No. 4 seed in the conference currently.
However, if Wake Forest has found success this season anywhere, it is playing at home. The team has only lost one game at home this season, coincidently to Georgia Tech in their last contest on Tuesday.
Despite the tall task at hand for Brownell with such an important game, he knows the team that the Tigers are about to face.
“Really hard. They’re good,” he explained. “They’re just dynamic and have a lot of weapons.”
Leading the arsenal of Wake weapons is guard Hunter Sallis, a transfer from Gonzaga. The junior has played at an All-ACC level this season, averaging 18.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, shooting an impressive 49.8% from the field.
Boopie Miller is another face to know on the Deacs. The guard averages 15.6 points and 3.8 assists of his own, grabbing 1.3 steals as well.
Forwards Cameron Hildreth and Andrew Carr make their mark on games as well. Hildreth scores 13.6 and grabs 4.7 rebounds a night, while Carr adds an average of 13.1 points and 6.4 rebounds of his own.
Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcasted on the ACC Network.
