GREENVILLE — Avery Holmes had one job on Wednesday night – slow down Boston College guard Eli Carter.

And that is what he did.

Carter, who was averaging 16.1 points per game prior to Wednesday’s contest with Clemson at the Bon Secours Wellness Center, scored just five points and connected on 1-of-17 shooting in Clemson’s 65-54 victory.

“I just wanted to make him tired,” Holmes said afterwards. “He does not come out the game a lot so I know that it was probably tiresome for him for me to pick him up every single time. That tired his legs out.

“He will make some shots, but I just wanted to make him tired the whole game.”

Carter played 35 of the game’s 40 minutes, while Holmes played 33.

“I thought Avery was really good with some big shots and some great defense,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said.

While Carter was noticeably fatigued, Holmes seemed as if he had plenty of energy, especially in the second half. The junior scored 12 points in the last 20 minutes and finished the game with 17 to go along with five assists and three steals.

The Clemson point guard was 4-of-8 from the field and 7 of 8 from the foul line.

“It felt good. It is tough when you haven’t been making your shots, but my teammates encouraged me to keep shooting and I was able to knock them down today,” Holmes said.

Though Holmes was great on the offensive end, the story of the night was still about his ability to wear down Carter, making ineffective on the offensive end of the court.

“Everything goes through him so I wanted to wear him down,” Holmes said. “My teammates were helping me, encouraging me. They played good help defense and stuff like that. They played the ball screens.”

Like Holmes they played defense, too. Despite Carter missing his first seven shots, the rest of the Eagles were still making theirs in the opening half. They made 6-of-14 three-pointers and led 34-31 at the break.

But the second half was a different story. The Eagles eventually grew tired and those baskets that were falling in the opening 20 minutes were now bouncing off the rim.

BC (7-19, 0-13 ACC) was just 1-for-9 in the second half from behind the arc.

“It was the same shots, right? They might have been more open than in the first half,” Boston College head coach Jim Christian said. “I thought in the first half we hit a couple of tough ones. In the second half, Eli’s was 95-percent down – that was a big miss.

“Going 1-for-9, you cannot win on the road shooting that way. We had good shots. We just did not make them.”

The Eagles were 7-of-23 from the field overall in the second half. BC’s 54 points marked the second straight game Clemson (16-10, 9-5 ACC) held its opponent under 55 points.

“They could have worn down, but I do like to think that our defense was pretty good,” Brownell said. “Avery was great. I don’t think we gambled as much. I think we were solid and we contested shots.”

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