The 23rd-ranked Clemson Tigers basketball team (21-5, 13-2 ACC) made easy work of the Florida State Seminoles (15-10, 6-8 ACC) on Saturday afternoon, by a 72-46 score.
“We shot the ball well,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “We took care of the ball. I thought we played one of our better games of the season.”
Clemson shot 48% from the field to FSU’s mere 34%, and were led by a 17-point, 4-assist effort from junior guard Dillon Hunter.
“Dillon’s a confident player,” Brownell said. “Our staff has seen his growth from his freshman year to his junior year, and obviously we saw a lot of progress this summer with his shooting. We knew that he’s going to shoot the ball at a high level this year, we felt that. We certainly have encouraged him to stay aggressive. He made a couple [of threes] again today, maybe three. I don’t think we’re surprised by it at all. [Starting him] has been a good move for us right now…we’re a little bit faster, certainly a little more speed on the perimeter.”
The Tigers raced to a 36-19 advantage at the break, helped in large part by stellar performances on the offensive glass and defensive end. 10 Seminole turnovers led to 14 Clemson points, while FSU scored zero points off of four Clemson turnovers.
When Clemson did miss, they crashed the paint and collected offensive rebounds. After collecting 11 offensive boards for the game, they scored 23 second chance points. With Florida State’s offense struggling as mightily as it did, every possession was critical. By allowing their own defense to play in the half court as opposed to in transition, CU’s offense was a big help to its defense.
Star guard Chase Hunter had a rare off game, missing all seven of his shots from the field, and putting up just 3 points, all coming at the free throw line.
“Some of [Chase’s struggles] is the way that they guarded him,” Brownell said. “They face-guarded him a lot, and didn’t let him have very many touches. He had tough shots when he did. I thought he did a lot of good things, not forcing it, accepting that. There were times that we told him ‘hey, that’s fine, they’re going to face-guard you, we’re going to do some things without you, underneath you there’s more space.’ Any time you face-guard a player like that there’s more space for other players to make plays. I thought our guys did a good job of attacking that. As a good player, you just have to understand that and not be selfish. Chase certainly wasn’t that. He had four steals and three or four rebounds. He’s smart enough that he’s about our team winning and our team having a good day instead of him having to score 17 points. He’s done that many times this year, today he didn’t have to do that.”
FSU’s Jamir Watkins led his team with 14 points on the afternoon. No other Seminole scored in double figures, and the team made just two of their 15 attempts from three-point territory.
Looking ahead for the Tigers, they have a week off before a road showdown with a strong SMU Mustangs team in Dallas. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently has Clemson as a No. 7 seed, while SMU is among the “First Four Out”, making this a game between two NCAA Tournament-hungry clubs. The game will tip off at 4:00 p.m. inside Moody Coliseum, and will be televised by the ACC Network.
