By Will Vandervort.
When Clemson was thumped by South Carolina back on Dec. 19 in its first true-road game of the season, it appeared the Tigers might be in for a long year away from the friendly confines of Littlejohn Coliseum.
It was obvious they were not ready for the large crowd and the hostile environment. They had a lot of room to improve. And that’s exactly what Clemson has done.
Since that faithful night on Dec. 19, the Tigers have posted a 3-2 mark on the road – all in the ACC, including Wednesday’s 62-56 victory at Florida State. Clemson, who has won four straight games overall has now won two straight road games and three of its last four in the conference.
Even in the Tigers’ loss at then No. 5 Louisville they played well enough to win the game.
“Road wins are hard to come by in the ACC, but I guess it’s because we are more focused,” said forward Jaron Blossomgame, who led the Tigers with 14 points against Florida State. “We know we have to be focused and play well in order to win on the road.”
With the exception of the second half at Virginia on Jan. 13, Clemson (14-8, 6-4 ACC) has outplayed, outhustled and in some cases outshot its opponents, while winning in places where it is not so easy to win.
The Tigers handed Pittsburgh its 27th home loss in the 12 years it has played at the Petersen Center, while the victory at NC Sate on Jan. 28, was just the program’s 18th in 180 games in the Triangle (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) area.
“I don’t know why we have played so well except for maybe we have some guys that are a little older and have been though the wars in the league and have been in these buildings before,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “If you can win one or two, winning a game like Pittsburgh, one that is relatively early in the conference season on the road, it gives you a little more confidence that when you are in those situations the next time you can play well. I think the experience is a factor.”
That experience paid off against the Seminoles. Besides Blossomgame’s 14 points, Clemson also got 13 points from Jordan Roper and eight points and eight rebounds from Josh Smith, all three guys played in last year’s victory at Tallahassee as well.
Smith made two huge free throws late in the game and grabbed a huge defensive rebound to seal the Tigers’ fourth straight victory.
Clemson has also defended well in its three-road victories. The Tigers have allowed just 58.3 points and 34.6 percent shooting in wins at Pitt, at NC State and at Florida State.
“I do think our defense has helped us in a lot of situations,” Brownell said.
“It takes us deeper into the game and it gives us chances to win,” he continued. “We are in the game for a long period of time because of our defense. Then if our offense gets going a little bit we can steal one from you.
“Our defense gets us off to a good start, we make a couple of shots and pretty soon we are playing with a lead because we are defending at a high level. Now we put pressure on the home team to catch up and in games like NC State, it was just too big of a lead and it was hard to catch up and overtake us.”