GREENVILLE — Jamie Dixon wanted his Pittsburgh team to attack Jaron Blossomgame. The game plan was to attack Clemson’s leading scorer and get him into foul trouble.
That did not happen.
Instead Blossomgame was charged with one foul, and subsequently tallied 22 points in leading the Tigers to a 73-60 victory over Pitt at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville on Wednesday.
“He is a good player. We haven’t gone through and seen everybody, but he is packing,” Dixon said afterwards. “We really wanted to go out and do a good job out on him and we simply didn’t. We got to the basket, go to the line, we wanted to get some charges on him. We didn’t get those. We wanted to get some fouls on him. We didn’t get those.”
Blossomgame was getting everything. He made 7-of-11 field goals and connected on 6-of-9 free throws, while also grabbing six rebounds. The 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward did all for the Tigers on Wednesday night, just like he has all season.
He made jump shots. He made three-pointers and he slashed to the basket and made plays in the paint. His 22 points against Pitt marked the third straight game in which he scored at least 22 points.
Blossomgame dropped in 23 at Virginia last Tuesday after scoring 25 against Miami on Jan. 16.
Both Dixon and Clemson head coach Brad Brownell agree that Blossomgame’s performance through the first eight games of the ACC season has him on par with some of the best players in the league.
“I haven’t seen everybody but I know how he is impacted our team,” Brownell said. “He is impacting our team a great deal. Hopefully that will continue.”
Blossomgame has not only lifted the level of his play, but he has lifted up the play of his teammates as well. Clemson’s offense is more flowing – it’s not just a one-man show like it was last year when Blossomgame led the team in scoring and rebounding.
Against Pitt, three other Tigers scored at least 12 points. Point guard Avery Holmes added 13 points, as did guard Jordan Roper, while center Landry Nnoko totaled 12 points. As a team, Clemson shot 47.1 percent from the field, while connecting on 7 of 18 three-pointers (39 percent).
“I haven’t had my leading scorer back until this season. It’s hard sometimes offensively to reconstruct every single year,” Brownell said. “You can see our team is better offensively this year and a large part of it is because of Jaron.”
For the season, Blossomgame is averaging 16.7 points and is shooting 52.0 percent from the field. He has also connected on 43.4 percent of his three-point attempts and is shooting 76 percent from the foul line.
“He couldn’t shoot like that when he got here,” Brownell said. “We have obviously put a lot of time in with him and he has put a ton of time in on his own. He is a hard worker. He is a guy that obviously sees himself doing well and wants to play at the next level. He knows he needs to do more things on the perimeter.
“His ability to shoot the ball and stretch defenses has really made him more difficult to guard, while helping other guys with space.”
And all of that is leading to victories. Wednesday’s win over Pitt, marked the Tigers’ sixth in the last seven games.
“We are just confident. We are playing really good basketball right now,” Blossomgame said. “I’m very confident. I‘m playing very well right now. My teammates are giving me the ball in a position where I can be really effective.
“It really goes to them.”
That’s not what his teammates are saying.
“He is an amazing player. He helped us get going,” Holmes said.
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