Clemson Rolls Past NC State In ACC MBB Tournament
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Ian Schieffelin and PJ Hall each scored 15 points and Clemson pulled away from North Carolina State in the second half to earn an 80-54 victory in a quarterfinal game at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament on Thursday night.
Clemson (23-9), the No. 3 seed, will face second-seeded Virginia in the second of Friday night’s semifinal match-ups.
NC State got off to a strong start and held a nine-point lead midway through the first half, 20-11. The Tigers roared back to take a 39-36 lead at intermission. Chase Hunter hit three straight jumpers to get Clemson started in the second half and the Tigers outscored the Wolfpack 41-18 over the final 20 minutes.
From the midway point of the first half, Clemson scored two points for every point its defense allowed, outscoring the Wolfpack 69-34.
Hall gave Clemson a double-digit lead with a jumper midway through the second half to take a 57-46 lead. Brevin Galloway and Schieffelin hit back-to-back 3-pointers as the Tigers went on a 12-0 run and closed out the game on a 25-8 scoring binge.
Hunter finished with 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Clemson. Hunter Tyson contributed a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 rebounds to key the Tigers’ 41-28 dominance on the boards.
D.J. Burns Jr. paced NC State (23-10) with 12 points. Terquavion Smith scored 11 points and Jack Clark and Jarkel Joiner each added 10.
Noting Thursday’s Quarterfinals – Game 4
– Clemson (23-9) advances to Friday night’s 9:30 semifinal versus second-seeded Virginia (24-6). The Cavaliers took the lone regular-season meeting between the teams in Charlottesville on Feb. 28, winning 64-57.
– The Tigers improved to 23-68 all-time in the New York Life ACC Tournament and to 9-27 in tourney games played in Greensboro. Clemson will play in the tournament semifinals for the 14th time on Friday evening and seeks to reach the championship game for the third time in program history (previously 1962 and 2008).
– Clemson trails in the all-time series versus NC State 105-60, but Friday night’s victory was the Tigers’ fifth straight in the series and its seventh in the last eight meetings versus the Wolfpack. Clemson has swept three games versus NC State this season by a combined 65 points.
– This is the first time that Clemson has beaten an ACC opponent three times by 14 or more points in the same season.
– The margin of victory is Clemson’s second-largest ever in an ACC Tournament game. The school record is 34, achieved in an 82-48 win over BC in the 2008 quarters.
– Thursday’s meeting was the teams’ fourth New York Life ACC Tournament encounter in the past seven years. But regularity hasn’t always been the rule in the series. In fact, straight New York Life ACC Tournaments were held without a meeting of the two charter members (1964-84). In the 21-tournament span from 1989-2009, they met only once: a Tigers win in the first round of 1994.
– Clemson has won multiple games ACC Tournament games while seeded sixth or lower for only the second time. The first was in 1962.
– The Wolfpack slipped to 74-59 all-time in ACC Tournament play and to 28-26 at the Greensboro Coliseum.
– Clemson’s Hunter Tyson, recognized prior to the game with the Skip Prosser Award as the ACC Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year delivered his 16th double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Tyson now ranks seventh in program history for double-doubles in a season.
– Chase Hunter’s nine assists for the Tigers on Friday night led all players and were two shy of his career high of 11 set Feb. 22 against Syracuse.