By William Qualkinbush.

A 16-0 run that spanned both halves helped the Clemson Tigers hold off a late charge from the Robert Morris in Tuesday night’s 64-57 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum.

It was the final game for the Tigers before the start of conference play, as well as the final game of the 2014 portion of the season schedule.

The Tigers were led by Jaron Blossomgame, who posted his fifth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Donte Grantham added 13 points, six rebounds, and four assists for the Tigers. All 11 of Damarcus Harrison’s points came after halftime, as well.

Robert Morris was led in scoring by Marcquise Reed, who scored 21 points in 26 minutes before fouling out down the stretch. He picked up the slack for Rodney Pryor, who came in as the Colonials’ leading scorer at 14.5 points per game but struggled against stiff pressure from the Tigers. The junior made just three of 18 shot attempts and finished with seven points and nine rebounds.

The game went back and forth for most of the first half, with the Colonials going ahead 26-25 with 2:12 to play before the break. It was then that the Tigers took control, holding the Colonials scoreless for the rest of the first half and the opening 3:53 of the second during a 16-0 spurt that gave them a 41-26 advantage.

Grantham and Harrison paced the Clemson offense early in the second half, scoring the first ten Tiger points coming out of the locker room. As a group, the Tigers came out firing, knocking down seven of their first eight shots from the floor in building a 48-30 lead with 13:55 to play.

“I really challenged our guys in the second half to get off to a good start,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “We needed to send a message that we were going to try to put them away a little bit.”

The Colonials never fully went away, using a 7-0 run to bring the lead back into single digits at 51-42 with 7:03 to play. Clemson built the lead back up to ten, but a layup-steal-layup combination for Robert Morris trimmed the Colonials’ deficit to 61-55.

At that point, Clemson’s defense—which held the Colonials to 32.4 percent from the floor in the game—took over. Robert Morris missed four straight shots and committed a charge while the Tigers inched away at the free throw line.

The Tigers shot 55 percent (11 for 20) in the second half, but they also committed ten turnovers. Overall, Brownell’s team turned the ball over 17 times during Monday’s game.

“There are probably five or six that are just careless plays,” the head coach said. “We’ve just got to be better.”

Clemson opens up ACC play hosting nationally-ranked North Carolina on Saturday evening at 8:15 p.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum.