Close call: Clemson fends off SMU, Tigers win their ACC Tournament opener
Clemson is moving on in the ACC Tournament. Barely.
The Tigers didn’t look like a top seed for various stretches but scraped out a 57-54 win over SMU in their opening ACC Tournament game on Thursday night.
Veteran guard Chase Hunter scored a game-high 21 points on 7-13 shooting and had a number of clutch late buckets as the Tigers outlasted a feisty SMU squad.
With a three-point win in the quarterfinals, No. 3 seeded Clemson advances to a Friday night semifinal game against No. 2 Louisville at the Spectrum Center.
The Tigers (27-5) are now two wins away from a coveted ACC tournament championship, something they’ve never won in their program’s history.
No. 6 SMU gave Clemson (27-5) a run for its money, though.
“I felt like we just were playing with a piano on our back,” Tigers coach Brad Brownell said postgame. “We were stressed and just not enjoying the moment as much as we needed to. Hopefully, this win will help us do that.”
Clemson took a 54-51 lead in the final two minutes and extended that to 56-52 on guard Chase Hunter’s turnaround jumper in the paint. But with a chance to ice the game up four points, the Tigers committed a live-ball turnover.
SMU (23-10) made two free throws after a fast-break foul, Hunter missed a 3-pointer on the other end and the Mustangs had a go-ahead chance with 12.5 seconds left.
But SMU guard Chuck Harris’ 3-pointer fell short with 3.5 seconds left, and the refs awarded Clemson possession after an extensive out of bounds review.
Hunter was fouled, made his first free throw and missed his second, keeping the game within a possession. That didn’t impact much, though, considering SMU had no timeouts and was on the opposite end of the court after the ensuing rebound.
A desperation three-quarters court heave fell short, and Clemson survived.
In doing so, the Tigers narrowly avoided going one and done in back-to-back ACC Tournaments after getting routed by Boston College in their opener last year. They also kept their chances of a league title and a top 4 NCAA Tournament seed alive.
“The end goal isn’t here,” Hunter said. “We’ve got more to do.”
Game recap
Clemson and SMU were playing the last of four quarterfinal games at the Spectrum Center. The crowd on hand for the 9:30 p.m. (10,627 people) was still decent.
The first half of play? Not so much.
Four minutes into the game, the teams had combined for 12 turnovers. SMU, which advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Stanford on Wednesday, didn’t break 10 points until 11 minutes in. Clemson didn’t break 20 points until 12 minutes in.
At that point, it felt like the Tigers might assert their will. Veteran guard Chase Hunter swished an in-rhythm 3-pointer for a 22-14 lead — Clemson’s largest of the game — and an overwhelmingly pro-Tigers crowd began to stir.
It didn’t last. Clemson didn’t make another field goal the rest of the first half, SMU made six of its last eight shots and the Tigers were outscored 13-6 in the pre-halftime stretch. After leading by as many as eight points, their lead at the break one (28-27).
The Mustangs kept their foot on the gas and took a five-point lead shortly after halftime, with Clemson center Viktor Lakhin getting into foul trouble and reserve guard Dillon Hunter (finger) being ruled out for the rest of the game.
(Brownell said postgame he believes Dillon Hunter broke his right hand. Hunter said he wasn’t sure the extent of his injury and he’d get an X-ray on Friday.)
Clemson and SMU traded leads throughout the majority of the second half, with neither team leading by more than two or three possessions. With four minutes remaining, the game had been tied four times and seen six lead changes.
Clemson took a 54-51 lead with 1:59 remaining after forward Ian Schieffelin made two free throws, then extended that lead on Hunter’s jumper and got a few timely stops. But a late turnover got SMU back into the game when it felt out of reach.
Guard Jaeden Zackery (11 points) said he welcomed the challenge the SMU game presented. The Tigers entered having won eight straight games and 14 of their last 15 games. They hadn’t had a single-digit win since Feb. 10 against UNC.
For Clemson to grind through a flat start and escape with a quarterfinal win? And hold high-scoring SMU to zero field goals in the last six minutes in the process?
“That’s huge for us,” Zackery said.
Next up is Louisville, which handed Clemson one of its only two ACC regular-season losses earlier this year. The Cardinals beat the Tigers 74-64 in Louisville on Jan. 7.
Louisville also escaped with a win against a lower seed Thursday, though. The Cardinals trailed No. 7 seed Stanford by as many as 15 points in the second half before winning their quarterfinal at the buzzer, 75-73, on guard Chucky Hepburn’s midrange jumper.
“We’ve got to relax, enjoy this moment a little bit more and not play so stressed and trust in our offense a little bit better,” Brownell said.
2025 ACC Tournament scores, schedule
Thursday’s quarterfinal games
Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, Wake Forest 59
Louisville 75, Stanford 73
Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinal games
Duke vs. North Carolina, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Louisville vs. Clemson, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 11:54 PM.
