Blossomgame’s 23 lead Clemson to critical win over Boston College
Jaron Blossomgame scored 23 points and Clemson kept its long-shot NCAA Tournament hopes alive with a 65-54 victory over Boston College on Wednesday.
The Tigers (16-10, 9-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed at the half and were down 43-42 with 12 minutes left before going on a 16-5 run to gain control and send the Eagles (7-19, 0-13) to their 13th straight loss.
Clemson has more work to do if it wants to move into the NCAA field. Falling to struggling Boston College, though, would’ve been a death blow.
Donte Grantham put the Tigers up for good, 45-43, with a 3-pointer before Blossomgame’s two foul shots. Grantham, Avry Holmes and Blossomgame each hit 3-pointers to give the Tigers a 58-48 lead that the Eagles couldn’t overcome.
Boston College leading scorer Eli Carter was 1-for-17 shooting to end with 5 points, 11 fewer than his season’s average.
Dennis Clifford had 17 points to lead the Eagles.
Holmes scored 17 points and Grantham 10 for Clemson. Blossomgame added six rebounds with two blocked shots and had his seventh game in the last nine contests scoring 20 or more points.
Carter’s performance continued a late-season slide for the Florida transfer. He had just 2 points four games ago, then 7 points in a loss to Syracuse last time out. Against Clemson, Carter missed all seven of his 3-point tries.
Boston College surpassed its previous worst losing streak of 12, set in 1999-2000 as members of the Big East Conference and matched last time out.
This was supposed to be a Clemson runaway, the Tigers looking to build momentum to continue a surprising ACC season. Instead, the Eagles kept firing away – and hitting big shots.
Boston College made 13 of 28 shots in the opening half after entering dead last in ACC field-goal shooting. The Eagles were 6 of 14 from behind the arc, coming in 13th in that category in ACC play.
In this one, Boston College rallied from nine points down early to grab a 34-31 halftime lead on Sammy Barnes-Thompkins’ second 3-pointer of the period with 47 seconds left.
And the Eagles did it with Carter (16.1 points a game) in a first-half funk: He went 0-of-7 with zero points.
Clemson, meanwhile, struggled to make shots. Starting forward Grantham was 1 of 7 while the starting backcourt of Holmes and Jordan Roper combined to go 2 of 6 from the floor.
TIP INS
Boston College: The Eagles 12-game ACC losing streak matches the program’s 12 straight defeats in Big East play in 1999-2000.
Clemson: The Tigers have more ACC wins (8) than nonconference wins (7), the first time they’ve accomplished that since 1966-67. That year, Clemson went 17-8 overall with a 9-5 mark in the ACC.
UP NEXT
Boston College plays at Wake Forest on Sunday.
Clemson goes to North Carolina State on Saturday.
CLEMSON 65, BOSTON COLLEGE 54
BOSTON COLLEGE (7-19): Clifford 8-12 0-0 17, Owens 3-5 0-0 7, Carter 1-17 3-3 5, Hicks 1-3 0-0 3, Milon 1-3 0-0 3, Barnes-Thompkins 5-8 2-2 14, Meznieks 1-4 0-0 3, Diallo 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 21-54 5-5 54.
CLEMSON (16-10): Blossomgame 9-17 4-4 23, Holmes 4-8 7-8 17, Grantham 3-10 1-2 10, Nnoko 3-6 0-1 6, Roper 1-4 0-0 3, DeVoe 2-8 0-0 6, Djitte 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 22-54 12-17 65.
Halftime—Boston College 34-31. 3-Point Goals—Boston College 7-23 (Barnes-Thompkins 2-4, Owens 1-2, Clifford 1-2, Hicks 1-2, Milon 1-2, Meznieks 1-4, Carter 0-7), Clemson 9-25 (Grantham 3-7, Holmes 2-5, DeVoe 2-6, Blossomgame 1-3, Roper 1-4). Fouled Out—Owens. Rebounds—Boston College 32 (Clifford 8), Clemson 37 (Blossomgame, Nnoko 8). Assists—Boston College 12 (Carter 6), Clemson 14 (Holmes 5). Total Fouls—Boston College 19, Clemson 9. A—8,101.