CLEMSON – Guard play was at a premium for Clemson as the Tigers took down Florida State, 74-63, Saturday night with relative ease.

This was a rare occasion as Littlejohn Coliseum didn’t have fans waiting to see the game decided in the waning moments, which hasn’t favored Clemson.

The win didn’t come without some stress, as it was cut to a five-point lead with less than five minutes to play. Still, the Tigers did what it needed to do for a victory and remain in the race for a double-bye in the ACC Tournament. Here’s the 411 from a strong showing from the perimeter veterans.

-The weirdest moment of this game came on a call in the first half. Jack Clark’s layup was called a goaltending, but a review minutes later removed the two points. It was completely against the Tigers as the play resulted in a layup after the whistle, but that wasn’t take into consideration in the very late review. A blatant officiating mistake?

-PJ Hall was absent for a majority of the contest with foul trouble, playing just 16 minutes. He had two fouls early in the first half before committing his third less than two minutes into the second half. Hall fouled out on an odd double technical in the last minute, where it appeared he just got shoved while holding onto a rebound. As this team’s leading scorer, Hall can’t have those careless mistakes as the season reaches its biggest moments. Still, he had his moment on an and-one layup to end the Seminoles hopes when it was a five-point game.

-The silver lining in Hall’s absence was RJ Godfrey gave Clemson a big boost of the bench. He added eight points, three rebounds and two blocks in the first half when the Tigers’ leading scorer was off the floor. That was part in 17 points off the bench of the 38 Clemson scored. Godfrey finished the contest with 12 points and six rebounds.

-The Joe Girard show continued and he was instrumental in this win. He finished with 24 points and four made threes. No moment for him was bigger than the back-to-back threes before the under-16 timeout in the second half, extending the lead to 48-35.

-His co-star matched the excellence as Chase Hunter drilled a buzzer-beating three to take a 10-point lead into halftime. The starting guard went on to finish with 16 points and four assists. The impressive guard play is a great sign heading into March.

-Rebounding is the Tigers strength with the pair of Ian Schieffelin and Jack Clark continuing to be proof of that. The two combined for 22 boards, including five second-chance opportunities. 15 points came off offensive rebounds in the win.