CHARLOTTE — Third-seeded Clemson advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament with its 57-54 win over sixth-seeded SMU on Thursday night.

However, in doing so, the Tigers might have lost a key piece of the rotation. Guard Dillon Hunter suffered an injury to a finger during the first half of action. Hunter returned to the bench in the second half but never got back into the game.

After the win, Hunter was seen in the locker room sporting a large bag of ice on the finger.

“We don’t got too much information on it,” Hunter told The Clemson Insider after the game. “Just kind of strained it real bad. It started swelling.”

While Hunter didn’t dive too deep into any specifics, he was more optimistic than Brad Brownell.

“I don’t think it’s good. I think he probably broke his hand,” the head coach said. “Obviously, it’s a little bit of an emotional letdown for your team when the guy’s been playing so hard, you get to this time of year, the time of year you want to play and it goes sideways.”

Hunter was limited to just eight minutes after making his eighth start of the season against the Mustangs. While the junior guard is only averaging 5.6 points per game, what he brings to the team can’t always be measured by the box score.

Hunter has developed into a strong defender for Brownell’s squad, as well as a reliable ball-handler. He’s turned it over just 13 times all season while averaging more than 23 minutes per contest.

Watching from the bench for the entire second half wasn’t easy, especially seeing how close the game was throughout the final 20 minutes. However, Hunter insists he never had a doubt which team would come out on the winning side.

“It was a struggle,” Hunter said. “I haven’t been in that position in a minute. But I knew the team was going to bring it out. I knew the guys were going to play hard.”

As for his prognosis, that is still up in the air. The only thing he knows at this point is he wants to play and he will do everything possible to get back on the court.

“I am going to play it day by day and see how it feels (Friday) morning and all that,” Hunter said. “I want to be back. I want to play every game.”

Photo courtesy of Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images