By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — In practice, Milton Jennings says Landry Nnoko has bobbled the basketball at times when they have passed the ball inside, especially in traffic.

As they say, “practice makes perfect.” Though it was an exhibition game, and though it was Lander, a Division II school from down the road in Greenwood, S.C., Nnoko had no issues catching the basketball in traffic or anywhere else on the floor.

The Clemson freshman scored 14 points and had six rebounds in leading the Tigers to a 72-42 victory Monday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“I thought he did a real good job tonight,” Jennings said. “I liked how he caught the ball in traffic and finished it. When he caught it, he did not rush up his shot. He stayed patient, waited and got his hook shots up.”

The hook shots went in often for Nnoko, who was 7 of 9 from the field.

“I’ve been working on that with Coach (Mike) Winiecki the whole summer until know, so I was just applying what he taught me,” Nnoko said.

The Tigers applied a lot of what they were taught in the summer. Clemson shot 51.7 percent from the field and scored 29 points off 27 Lander turnovers. Jennings began his senior season with 14 points and eight boards, while K.J. McDaniels put on a show midway through the second half with seven straight points, including back-to-back impressive dunks on his way to a 12-point night.

But the story of the night was Nnoko. He started the evening for Devin Booker, who suspended for violation of team rules, and played 35 minutes.

“He did a good job,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “He played better tonight, and he had a size advantage tonight, which he won’t have as much against some other teams. But he just tries really hard. He competes.

“He tries to do what we tell him to do. He’s still got miles to go, but he made improvement. In the last month or two, he’s really gotten a little bit better and finishing more plays around the basket, which is what we’re trying to work with him on. He’s very active defensively, especially on ball screens. He’s not quite as good yet around the basket, protecting the basket all the time, but I’m very pleased with the young guy in his first performance as a Tiger.”

Brownell was also pleased with another freshman, Adonis Filer. The point guard did a nice job running the offense and finished the evening with 12 points on 5 of 7 shooting. He also had two assist, two steals and four rebounds.

“He’s a very aggressive defender,” Brownell said of Filer. “He and Rod, obviously, both really apply tremendous ball pressure, and I think you could see where they started to wear the other team’s point guard down. … That’s something we’ll need to do well this year for us to be good. And those two guys, especially, are very good at it.”

Clemson, who will open the season next Monday night against Presbyterian, will have to get better at free throw shooting and taking care of the basketball. The Tigers were just 8 of 16 from the charity stripe and had 16 turnovers.

“There were a couple of things I could have cleaned up,” Filer said. “The turnovers, I had two of them, and Coach Brownell doesn’t like any and I don’t like any. So I’ve got to clean that up.”