Clemson proves it can win in different ways by suffocating South Carolina
Clemson dominated its rival South Carolina 64-48 Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum, earning its sixth consecutive win.
The 16-point margin of victory was pleasing to coach Brad Brownell, but perhaps even more important moving forward is the way the Tigers won.
The Tigers (10-1) held USC to 35 percent shooting from the field and 12.5 percent from behind the arc while earning a double-digit win, despite scoring 15 points below their season average.
“I’ve said for many years here, the really good teams win in the 80s and win in the 50s. We’ve had teams in the past that were more in the 50s and 60s. Last year’s team, we were a little bit more high scoring. This year’s team, I think we can win both ways,” Brownell said. “That’s when you have a chance to have more success. Certainly we’re going to run when we can, but we’re also not opposed to playing in a way that makes other teams grind. We can embrace that part of the game as well. I think that’s really significant.”
Clemson has scored 78 points or more eight times this season but also has found ways to win when buckets have been hard to come by.
The Tigers defeated Florida 71-69 Saturday night in the Sunshine State before following that up with the impressive win over the Gamecocks.
It is still early in the 2017-18 season, but Clemson is starting to put together an impressive resume that should pay off at the end of the year.
Clemson lost its leading scorer off last year’s team in Jaron Blossomgame but appears improved as a team through the first 11 games.
“To respond that way after a nice win at Florida, fairly short turnaround for our guys, to be ready to compete at the high level we did, I thought our execution got better the longer the game went offensively,” Brownell said. “I think early we were a little hyped up and probably tried a couple of things that maybe weren’t as good. The longer the game went, the more we settled in as coaches and players and played extremely well.”
This isn’t the first time Clemson has gotten off to a strong start in nonconference action, but continuing that success throughout the year has been difficult.
The Tigers went 10-2 in nonconference play last season but went on to miss the NCAA tournament after going 6-12 in the ACC.
Brownell is happy with his team’s start to the year but knows there is no time to relax. He won’t allow his guys to look ahead.
Clemson hosts a 10-2 Louisiana-Lafayette team on Friday before beginning ACC play on Dec. 30.
“I don’t worry about any of that because it doesn’t matter,” Brownell said of Clemson’s current resume. “Certainly those are great wins, significant. We’re going to enjoy this one tonight, and we also play a team on Friday that’s (10-2) and has a bunch of really good players and picked to do well in the Sun Belt and already beat a couple of high-major teams. … We’ve gotta get our minds right. If this group wants to have a great year, we’ve got to stay mature and practice well.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2017 at 10:42 PM with the headline "Clemson proves it can win in different ways by suffocating South Carolina."