By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

CLEMSON — Devin Booker said the Clemson basketball team was hungry Tuesday night in its 60-44 victory over Wake Forest at Littlejohn Coliseum, and once they got its first taste of blood it feasted on the Demon Deacons all night.

“It was basically eating,” the Clemson center said. “The ball was our meal so we just kept going for the ball.”

Clemson (10-6, 2-2 ACC) went for the ball and got a hold of it 11 times, while limiting the Deacons to 24.6 percent shooting. The field goal percentage defense was the second best by a Clemson team against an ACC opponent in history.

Ironically, the best field goal percentage defense in ACC competition came against Wake Forest, too, but that was on January 4, 1965.

“It’s an honor to be a part of something like that,” forward K.J. McDaniels said.

McDaniels played a big role in why the Tigers dominated Wake Forest (9-7, 2-2). The sophomore played above the rim all night, soaring for 14 points, nine rebounds, but most impressively had seven of Clemson’s 11 block shots.

“I’m always hungry for blocks,” he said. “It rubs off on the team, Book and everybody. Being able to challenge every shot, I think it pumps our team up more. When it comes from our defense, our offense will come.”

The offense came for McDaniels. Of his 14 points, eight came from four massive dunks, including one in the second half that came off a miss shot. McDaniels virtually climbed Wake Forest’s Tyler Cavanaugh’s back on what looked like a sure Sports Center top 10 play.

“When the game is in transition, he is a better player,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said about McDaniels’ performance. “I have said all season we really need to work to get him to become a better half-court player. There are times he has had a hard time creating his own shots and that’s something we have really tried to work on.”

They did not have to work on it in the win against Wake, McDaniels was 6 of 13 from the floor and made a three-pointer as Clemson shot 6 of 14 from behind the arc.

“I wanted to be aggressive from the start,” McDaniels said. “Going into the last game, I was having tension headaches, and I knew I just had to come in and be more aggressive… I was able to bounce back and get back into a rhythm.

Booker continued his good season. The senior added 12 points on four of nine shooting and had eight rebounds as well.

“I have tried to be more aggressive and be someone that my teammates can rely on,” Booker said. “If someone is having a bad game, I just have to step up and show them that everything is going to be alright and that we are in this together.”

The Tigers were definitely together on defense from the beginning. Wake Forest shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half and it only got worse from there. Leading scorers Travis McKie and C.J. Harris were both held under their averages scoring wise, while reserve center Tyler Cavanaugh was 1-for-12 from the field.

McKie, who averaged 15.2 points a game, was held to 12 points, while Harris, who was scoring 15.7 per game, had just eight points.

“We just wanted to make it harder (on Harris),” Brownell said. “We wanted to know where he was and find him in transition. We just wanted to slow them down in transition.

“Obviously, there were some times where we did not hustle, or we were not in the right position, but I thought for 35 of the 40 minutes we had really good transition defense.”

Wake Forest had zero fast break points. The Demon Deacons finished the night 15 of 61 from the field and 2 of 10 from three-point range.

“We made it hard for them to finish at the rim, and that got them forcing bad shots,” Booker said. “We played them like any other team and from the beginning we were blocking shots and we decided to stick with that and that made it hard for them.”