By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — In its last three victories, Clemson has averaged 83 points a game. The last time out, the Tigers ran up and down the floor in a 92-51 victory over The Citadel.

Clemson shot a season-high 61.4 percent from the floor and made six of 14 three-pointers. Freshman Adonis Filer scored a career-high 21 points on seven of seven shooting, while fellow freshman Jordan Roper dropped in 13 points on six of 10 shooting. For a second straight game transfer Damarcus Harrison shot the ball well in scoring 10 points after adding 15 in a win over S.C. State before the holidays.

But as good as all of those numbers are, the numbers that matter the most to head coach Brad Brownell are the ones that say 47, 41 and 51 points. In the last three victories, as impressive as the offense has been, the defense has been even better.

“It is definitely better that we hold them to 51 points than score 92,” Roper joked following Tuesday’s win over The Citadel. “He is probably way more proud about that.”

Brownell was proud of the fact the defense forced 25 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to 21 shots. Of the 25 turnovers, 16 came off steals and the Tigers turned those into 44 points.

Clemson (8-4) did a lot of that by putting pressure on the ball, but don’t look for that Saturday when the Tigers open up the ACC part of their schedule at home against Florida State.

“I don’t know if we will do that as much in ACC play,” Brownell said. “When you play better competition with faster guards, guys are going to make you pay for pressing at times so you have to be really careful with that.”

But Brownell is pleased with the way his team has played in the last two games, especially offensively. It should help the Tigers confidence as it prepares for the defending ACC Champions.

“Moving into conference play, it is good to see us shoot the ball well, make shots, have a convincing win and have good offensive performances,” he said. “We are certainly better than the last two teams we played and you need to exploit that.

“I think the good thing to see was Adonis make four threes. They really kind of played off of him and gave him open shots and he made them. We have had other games when that has happened and guys have not made them.”

Over the last several weeks Clemson has paid a lot of attention to getting better on offense, and though improvement as shown up, especially with the play of Filer and Roper, Brownell is concerned it could lead to a lack of focus on the defensive end of the court.

“We have worked a lot on our offense the last couple of weeks and we have played a little better, but we have played competition that is not as stout,” he said. “We have gotten into a good rhythm, but there are times we have slipped defensively because of that. That’s kind of two or three steps forward and then two steps back because you just need to feel that you are consistently moving forward.

“I hope it happens. I think our guys are excited and we are in a good place right now, but it is going to be a challenge for this group over the next 18 games.”

Roper says he can tell that the team has improved since the season began, and Brownell agrees with him, but it has not been easy to see compared to the last two teams Brownell has coached at Clemson.

“There are probably some more frustrating moments with this year’s team,” Brownell said. “You feel like you get some things going in a good direction, and then you see something new that you have not practiced as much and when you have young players that are not experienced with it or you have not mastered some things that you think they should master because you are constantly game planning defensively for another situation.”

In other words, the Tigers, who will host Florida State at 4 p.m. on Saturday, are still young and they have a long ways to go before they grow up.