Leading by eight points with 8:23 to play Saturday, Clemson discovered it was going to have to play a critical part of the game without its leading scorer.
PJ Hall picked up his fourth foul on somewhat of a questionable call which allowed TCU guard Jameer Nelson to shoot two free throws, cutting the lead to six points.
As it turned out, the Tigers did not need Hall.
Instead of losing their lead, the Tigers went an 8-0 run, increasing their lead to 14 points in what turned out to be a 74-66 victory over TCU at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Canada. During the key run, Clemson got a key bucket from Ian Schieffelin and free throws from Joe Girard and Dillon Hunter.
“I think that was critical,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “R.J. [Godfrey] was terrific today. I thought his athleticism defensively was really good. His rebounding, he had ten rebounds. I thought he guarded a lot of their front-court athletes really well. He kept them from getting around the basket area. He walled them up. He helped us on the glass. His speed and transition defense were good. He is just an improving player.
“I thought our bench in general was good. We got in a lot of foul trouble. Dillon played a lot. Josh [Beadle] gave us good minutes, Bas [Leyte] gave us a couple of minutes. I thought our bench really held us in the game and played well. We had the lead at the end of the first half, and we played a bunch of bench guys. I am proud of those guys. Those guys work really hard, and I thought they were vital in today’s game.”
Clemson’s bench scored 15 points.
Schieffelin—a starter—finished the game with 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Hall had 17 points and six rebounds.
THE TAKEAWAY
With 9:15 to play in the first half, Clemson suffered its 10th turnover of the game, giving the Horned Frogs a 10-2 advantage in points off turnovers. Clemson trailed 20-17 at the time. From that point, the Tigers had just three turnovers the rest of the afternoon, limiting TCU’s ability to get out and run, which led to Clemson’s eight-point victory.
“We had a little bit better spacing. We just tried to get our guys to play with a little more poise,” Brownell said. “We really did not practice much for this game. We were pretty emotionally spent and physically drained from the South Carolina game. On Thursday we did a walkthrough, watched film and traveled. On Friday we worked out for about forty to forty-five minutes, maybe. It was half speed at most.
“We were a little half-step slow in the game. TCU is so athletic and long that it kind of jumps at you if you are not ready for it, and not practicing against what they do was problematic for a half. Our guys adjusted much better in the second half.”
IMPLICATIONS
The Tigers (9-0) already have five wins away from Littlejohn Coliseum and are doing it against good teams. Clemson has road wins at Alabama (6-3) and Pitt (6-3), as well as neutral site wins against TCU (7-1), UAB (4-5) and Davidson (7-3). The Tigers also have home wins over South Carolina (8-1) and Boise State (6-3).
Clemson currently ranks No. 1 in the RPI rankings. The Tigers already have three wins over teams in the top 40 of the RPI—South Carolina (No. 8), Alabama (No. 27) and Bosie State (No. 37).
MVP
Girard scored a game-high 21 points, including 14 points in the second half. The Syracuse transfer keyed a 19-3 run for the Tigers in the second half, by scoring the first nine points. He finished the day 5 of 13 from the field overall, including 3 of 8 from behind the arc. He also was 8-for-9 from the foul line and had four assists to go along with five rebounds.
The graduate student scored seven points early in the game but did not score again until the second half.
“We did nothing much, we just tried to stay in the offense and look for our spots,” Girard said on what was different in the second half. “I have been trying to do that all year. Just figure out when it is a good time to pick your spots. When the team needs something, I try to provide some energy. The guys did a good job finding me all day.”
TIDBITS
Clemson improved to 20-9 all time against Division I teams in games played outside of the United States. The Tigers have won five of their last six games when playing against a Division 1 team in another country.
UP NEXT
Clemson will play at 6-2 Memphis next Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. on ESPN+
–photo by John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports