Clemson closed out its non-conference play with an 87-73 victory over UNC-Wilmington on Wednesday at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Tigers victory can be accredited to their 55.6 completion percentage from the floor, sound defense, and wining the height match-up over a smaller UNC-Wilmington team, which allowed the Tigers to acquire 48 points in the paint.

Following Clemson’s victory, the media spoke to point guard Shelton Mitchell and head coach Brad Brownell.

Here is what we heard:

In Brownell’s opening statement, he expressed how pleased he was with his team’s performance in a tough non-conference match-up.

“We beat a really good team today,” he said. “I thought our guys really prepared well the last couple of days. I thought we executed our game plan really well. We wanted to go inside, and make size matter. I thought we did.

“We had some blocks defensively, and we made them shoot over us a bunch which was good. Jaron (Blossomgame) did some really good things, and some of our interior guys, our post players both Sidy (Djitte) and Elijah (Thomas) scored, so I’m just really pleased with the way we played. We took care of the ball reasonably well, but I thought we also made good decision against the break. We talked about go-vs-flow; when to go and attack and then when to flow into offense. I thought we had a good mix of both.”

In preparation of playing a much smaller team, the Tigers wanted to take advantage of their height and size in the paint. Brownell felt like his team executed that game plan.

“Having different weapons is a nice luxury for us. It’s just making good decision and playing sound basketball is what leads to good execution,” he said. “Today, it was trying to take advantage of our size and play around the rim and in the paint. I thought we did.”

Also attributing to Clemson’s execution was the team’s defensive intensity, which was able to limit UNC-Wilmington’s strong offensive abilities.

Brownell said he was pleased with their ball screen coverage to limit the Seahawks.

“I just think we had four different ball screen coverages in the game. We’re an older team that’s able to play things differently. I think, sometimes, that really helps us. It gives the other team different looks,” he said. “I think because of our age and experience, we’re able to do that. We planned on using two or three (ball screen coverages) and we ended up using four.

“Some of that’s because we have guys around that know what we’re trying to do and because we take it very seriously. Our attention to detail is at the highest level.”

Moving into ACC play, Brownell said he is going to focus on continual daily improvement as opposed to one specific thing.

“I thought earlier in the year, our defense was behind. I think we’ve made some improvements in the area recently,” the Clemson coach said. “I think that’s helped us win some of these games. I think just being smart, and building our flow, building our different line-ups, mixing and matching and getting guys comfortable playing with different guys and different settings. Guys are adjusting to each other really.”

Heading into ACC play, Mitchell said Clemson has room for improvement.

“I think we’re playing really good, but I think we can still take it to another level,” he said. “There’s a couple things we still need to work on. More things on the defensive end, basically just everything. We’re not perfect, so we can always do better.”

With Wednesday’s win, the Tigers (10-2) increased their winning streak to eight games. Mitchell says looking at the bigger picture will propel Clemson forward with the same momentum it has carried thus far.

“We want to make it to the tournament,” the point guard said. “The more wins we keep on racking up, the more it helps. So, today was a good win. Now we just have to get ready for our first conference game.”

The Tigers first conference game will be at Wake Forest on Saturday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Tipoff is set for noon.

–Photo Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports