Clemson basketball is headed to the Elite Eight thanks to a 77-72 victory over No. 2 Arizona Thursday in the NCAA’s West Regional at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The win sends Clemson to its first Elite Eight since 1980.

“Obviously, it is a huge win,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “Just really happy for my players, my staff and really all of Clemson nation. This was a big-time game by our guys.”

Clemson guard Chase Hunter made a layup and-one to give the Tigers a 75-70 lead with 25.7 seconds to play. Then his younger brother, Dillon, made a breakaway layup with nine seconds to go to seal the victory. It was Dillon Hunter’s first basket of the game.

“That was definitely a big moment and a big moment for our team,” Hunter said. “When that went in, I definitely had some confidence that we were going to win the game. Then my little bro got a layup at the end and-one. That really sealed it for us.”

The win over No. 2 Arizona is the highest seeded team Clemson has defeated in an NCAA Tournament Game.

“Today was our day. We made enough plays today to win,” Brownell said. “I am just super happy that these guys are going to get a chance to continue to play and we get to spend more time together.”

Hunter finished with a game-high 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead the Tigers, while Ian Schieffelin tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. He also had two steals and a block.

PJ Hall had 17 points and eight rebounds.

The Wildcats’ Jaden Bradley finished with 18 points, 16 of which came in the second half, which also included an 8-for-8 effort from the foul line. Clemson led for all but 20 seconds Thursday night, and now in three NCAA Tournament games the Tigers have trailed just 50 seconds.

Clemson (24-11) went up five points, 70-65, with 1:43 to play on a Hall layup from a Schieffelin pass. After Arizona cut it back to three, Hall came off a screen a dunked home a shot with 1:05 to play.

Before Hall’s dunk, Brownell called a timeout with 1:09 to go to draw up the play.

“So, we were drawing that up and I told Ian, knowing they’d been switching a lot of off-ball screens out of bounds,” Hall said. “Coach drew it in the timeout, we came out, executed a great play, and Chase led me right to the rim, and it worked. It was a good play.”

The Tigers, the sixth seed, had an opportunity to extend their lead late in the second half. However, Clemson struggled to find its shot at the time. Though Arizona missed 14 of 15 shots during an eight-minute stretch in the second half, the Tigers could not add on to their seven-point lead.

Arizona (27-9) struggled from behind the arc, the third straight team in this tournament to do so against the Tigers. The Wildcats were just 5 of 28 from behind the arc (18 percent) and just 25 of 67 from the field overall (33 percent).

The Tigers shot 49 percent overall (29 of 49) and were 8 of 25 from deep (32 percent).

Clemson led 39-31 at halftime after getting 16 field goals in 10 assists in the first 20 minutes.

The Tigers shot 16 of 30 to start the game, including 5 of 11 from behind the arc. Though Schieffelin led with nine points, the story of the half came from the bench. Chauncy Wiggins and RJ Godfrey combined to make their first five shots and tallied 13 points overall.

Wiggins scored eight points and was 2-for-2 from behind the arc. Godfrey also hit a three-pointer and was 2-for-2 in the opening half for five points.

Clemson turned eight Arizona turnovers into 11 points and had an 11-6 advantage in points off turnovers.

The Tigers led by as many as 13 points in the first half, 27-14, with 7:19 to go following a Wiggins’ three-pointer in the corner.

“We got off to a great start and Arizona punched back a couple of times, but these guys hung in there and finished a game against a really good team,” Brownell said.

UP NEXT

Clemson advances to the West Regional Finals where it will play No. 4 seed Alabama at 8:40 p.m. EST, on Saturday. The Crimson Tide beat No. 1 seed North Carolina, 89-87.

A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available.  Get yours while supplies last!  Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!