Clemson’s men’s basketball season will see at least one more day.

The Tigers stayed hot Tuesday with a 70-64 win over North Carolina State in the opening round of the ACC Tournament. PJ Hall recorded a double-double with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Nick Honor and Al-Amir Dawes added 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Tigers, who ran their winning streak to a season-best five games with their latest victory inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

It wasn’t always the prettiest performance against the ACC’s last-place team during the regular season for the Tigers, particularly offensively. Clemson (17-15) shot 41.7% from the field and made just 6 of 23 3-point shots, but the Tigers came up with timely buckets to advance to a second-round matchup with Virginia Tech on Wednesday.

The teams’ 7 p.m. tip will be their second meeting in five days after Clemson beat the Hokies in its regular-season finale Saturday.

“We’re going to have to play with maximum effort and shoot the ball probably better than we did tonight to beat a really good team,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “But the advantage really for both teams is it’s an incredibly quick turnaround. Having just played them, we have a good feel for what they do and they’re going to know what we do.”

After missing three of the last four games of the regular season with continued foot inflammation, Hall returned to the starting lineup for the first time in five games and scored eight points in the first half to help Clemson take a 29-24 advantage into the break. N.C. State (11-21), behind a game-high 19 points from Dereon Seabron, stayed close early in the second half, getting within a possession at 39-36 with 12:18 left.

But the Tigers ripped off a quick 8-0 run capped by consecutive 3s from Honor and eventually pushed their lead back to double digits. The Wolfpack made another push to get within six with 5:48 remaining, but Hall chased down a loose ball to retain Clemson’s ensuing possession before finding Dawes alone on the wing for another 3.

“Huge momentum swing for us,” Brownell said. “(Hall and Honor) made huge plays. This is a game where players have got to make plays.”

A few possessions later, Hall rebounded a couple of misses, including one of his own, and kicked out to Chase Hunter, who buried a corner 3 to get the Tigers’ advantage back to double digits, 60-50, with 4:10 left.

“It’s huge to get some rest,” said Hall, who shot 7 of 12 from the field in 31 minutes, the most he’s played since logging 34 at Duke in late January. “I came back the last game of the (regular) season to get my feet wet, and it felt pretty solid out there tonight. Going to rest up, ice it tonight and get ready to go tomorrow hopefully.”

N.C. State made one last push, again trimming the deficit to two possessions in the final 2 minutes. But Clemson made six of its final nine free throws to keep the Wolfpack at bay down the stretch.

The Tigers held N.C. State to just 35% shooting, including a 17.4% clip from beyond the arc (4 of 23).

“Proud of how we defended,” Brownell said. “I thought we guarded exceptionally well today.”

Photo courtesy of the USA Today Sports Network

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