With ACC and NCAA Tournament implications on the line, 18th-ranked Clemson continued its road dominance in the ACC, as the Tigers rolled to a 79-69 victory over SMU Saturday at Moody Coliseum in Dallas, Texas.

The win marked the Tigers’ record sixth straight ACC road win, while also tying the school record for ACC wins in a season with 14. The 2022-’23 Tigers own the record after going 14-6 that year.

Clemson (22-5, 14-2 ACC) tallied a team-record 24 assists in the victory, as well.

“It was a terrific win for our team,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said.

The Tigers came into the game knowing they had a shot at earning another Quad 1 win in the NET Rankings. SMU, who was 0-4 in Quad 1 games this season, knew it needed to beat Clemson if it wanted to have any shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

However, it was Clemson, No. 24 in the NET, that got the big win, as it improved to 4-2 in Quad 1 games, while the Mustangs, No. 38, fell to 0-5 vs. Quad 1 opponents.

“Our guys were locked in,” Brownell said. “We had a week, so we took Monday and Tuesday and really just worked on ourselves. We took off Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday we had really good practices leading into this game.

“I thought we played with great energy and had pretty good attention to detail.”

The win also extended the Tigers’ school record for ACC wins in a
season by double-digits. Twelve of their 14 ACC wins have been by 10 or more points.

The Tigers also extended their record for ACC road wins in a season with seven. Clemson is 7-1 this year in ACC road games.

Clemson was led by Jaeden Zackery’s 19 points, while Chase Hunter finished with 17 points and Viktor Lakhin had 16. Ian Schieffelin added 10 points.

Zackery and Dillon Hunter led Clemson with seven assists each.

“Obviously, we were able to shoot the ball and share the ball, twenty-four assists is terrific. So, I just think we played a very clean game,” Brownell said. “We beat a very good team today.”

SMU (20-7, 11-5 ACC) was led by Chuck Harris’ 16 points.

The Tigers shot 49 percent from the field, and finished 48 percent from 3-point range. They connect on 14 of 29 threes overall.

“It helps when you shoot the ball as well as we did,” Brownell said. “Obviously, you do not make fourteen threes that often.”

The Mustangs connected on 8 of 25 of their threes (32 percent) and turned the basketball over 16 times.

Clemson had an 18-8 edge in points off turnovers.

In the first half, the Tigers led by as many as 11 points, 23-12, thanks to a Myles Foster layup with 11:49 to play. The Tigers had just three 2-point field goals in the opening half and were 3 of 10 in those situations.

It was over when

Clemson guard Chase Hunter drained a 3-pointer from the left side to extend the Tigers’ lead to 18 points, 61-43, with 9:52 to play. The Tigers’ 18-point lead was its biggest of the afternoon.

Hot Start

Clemson guard Jaeden Zackery set a career-high with five 3-pointers in the first half. He was 5-for-5 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, while the Tigers were 10 of 15 overall from long range.

He led Clemson, and all scorers, with 15 first-half points.

“He got a lot of open looks,” Brownell said. “Some of it is teams are guarding Chase a little differently. Sometimes they are face guarding and when you do that, it opens up a lot of space for other players. So Maybe that was part of it.”

The Tigers led 36-32 at the break. Clemson’s 52-percent shooting from the field was the best by any team in the first half against SMU this season.

Presidential win

Former President George W. Bush was in attendance on Saturday. He attended the game with the former First Lady.

Injuries

Clemson reserve center Christian Reeves missed the game due to an ankle injury.

Up Next

Clemson returns home to Littlejohn Coliseum on Wednesday night, as the Tigers host Notre Dame at 7 p.m.