By Hale McGranahan.

Forty minutes of full-court pressure can do that to even the most diligent ball handlers.

Rod Hall committed a career-high eight turnovers in Sunday night’s 72-61 win over Auburn (3-5). Some he called “carless.” Others, like the two carrying calls, drew a laugh and a shrug of the shoulders.

“It’s something I’ve got to clean up,” Hall said, “Something I usually don’t do.”

Auburn forced Clemson (6-3) to commit 15 turnovers in the first half. The second half number was cut to three, all of which were charged to Hall.

“He obviously didn’t play well in a lot of ways, in terms of a floor game where he usually plays great,” Brad Brownell said. “In the second half, he really got his head in there and made some big-time plays.

“We don’t win this game if he’s not out there.”

Hall finished the night with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. Fellow senior Damarcus Harrison had 19.

The duo combined to make 11-of-13 shots from the free-throw line.

“I thought Rod and Damarcus were really big in the second half, in terms of production,” Brownell said.

Good minutes from Smith. With Landry Nnoko fighting foul trouble for almost the entire second half, Josh Smith provided some much needed production in his paint

Nnoko picked up his third foul just 24 seconds into the second half. After spending over 10 minutes on the sideline, he returned with 9:22 to play, but quickly added No. 4. and another trip to the bench. The fifth disqualified him with 2:12 left in the game.

In just 16 minutes, Nnoko managed to score nine points and pull down seven rebounds.

Smith, who logged nine minutes,  was efficient during his time with six points and three rebounds.

“I thought Josh played some really productive minutes in the time he was out there,” Brownell said.

The junior from Charlotte scored four of his points during the 11-2 second half run that gave Clemson a 40-29 lead with 16:08 to play.

“Pretty much, I just had to provide the energy off the bench,” he said. “I just picked up where (Nnoko) left off, what he would have done.”

Hall added, “Josh is always an energy guy, even in practice. He gets in and gets offensive rebounds, tries to play the best he can.

“He got out there and got a chance to do it and he did, so he played pretty good for us.”

General admission seating. Brownell realizes there are plenty of factors that will probably prevent Clemson from allowing more home games to be general admission.

“Certainly, we can do it once or twice a year to start, get everybody to understand what it’s for and how it’s helpful,” he said. “I think it helps attract some fans to games. I think it’s a good benefit, something we need to look at, especially when students are gone.”

The players enjoyed the environment.

“It gave us a chance to have more fans here, for those who are probably unfortunate to come to the games,” Smith said. “It helped us have a bigger fan-base.”

Jaron Blossomgame tweeted afterwards that every game should be general admission.

“I think it helped us, even when we were playing poorly offensively, I think it kept our guys juiced defensively — to guard. As much as anything, I think it also puts pressure on the opponents sometimes,” Brownell said.

Perfect against the SEC. First came the win over LSU in their last game at the Paradise Jam. Up next was last week’s 68-65 overtime triumph against Arkansas. Sunday’s 11-point win versus Auburn pushed Clemson to 3-0 against SEC teams.

“This is the ACC,” Hall said. “You’ve got to step your game up and just try not to lose against an SEC team, play the best we can.”

Clemson will have a chance to improve to 4-0 against the SEC with Friday’s trip to South Carolina.

“That’s a rivalry game,” Hall said. “Everybody is going to be really pumped for that game. We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do.”