Clemson ‘a little bit banged up’ entering pivotal showdown with Notre Dame

Clemson is in the middle of one of its toughest stretches of the season and needs a win Saturday afternoon against Notre Dame to avoid falling into a rut.

The 20th-ranked Tigers (15-3, 4-2) have lost two of their past three games and will travel to face No. 2 Virginia on Tuesday. Clemson would love to enter its matchup with Virginia looking to stay near the top of the ACC standings instead of staring at losses in three consecutive, and four out of five, games.

“Home teams are winning a lot of games, which is normal. It doesn’t make it any easier, really, in terms of once the ball is tipped you’re just playing. But, certainly, we hope to feed off a great crowd, another sellout crowd, and build a little momentum through them,” Tigers coach Brad Brownell told reporters Friday. “I think we’ve done that both against Louisville and Miami, and it’s nice to play at home.”

Clemson is coming off a tough loss at North Carolina in which it struggled mightily in the first half before rallying to within two points, only to lose in Chapel Hill for the 59^th consecutive time.

Brownell did not get into details but said that Donte Grantham, Clemson’s second leading scorer, was less than 100 percent entering the game against the Tar Heels. He added that Shelton Mitchell, Clemson’s starting point guard and third leading scorer, is less than 100 percent now.

“We had to sit (Shelton) in practice yesterday, to be honest with you, and Donte, too, for that matter, a little bit. Those guys are both just … We’re a little bit banged up,” Brownell said. “There’s been a lot of competitive games so far, and we’re really trying to manage it here this next day or two to make sure that those guys feel good about where they are physically in terms of competing. I think it’s going to take a lot to beat these guys.”

Notre Dame is banged up as well.

The Irish (13-6, 3-3) will be without leading scorer Bonzie Colson, who was injured in early January. Colson is expected to miss about two months. He was averaging more than 21 points per game at the time of his injury.

Notre Dame is relying more on Matt Farrell (16.3 ppg) and TJ Gibbs (14.7) to score.

Even without Colson, Brownell is expecting a tough test against a Notre Dame team that in its past two games lost to North Carolina by 1 and lost to Louisville in double overtime.

“They’ve adjusted nicely since Bonz’s injury … I think they really defend well. They’ve got big, strong, athletic guards, good size, toughness. And they rebound the fire out of the ball, so you don’t get many second chances,” Brownell said. “We have a very competitive, physical group from Notre Dame coming in – smart, tough. We’ll have to play well Saturday.”