Clemson’s men’s basketball team responded emphatically Wednesday night.

PJ Hall scored a game-high 20 points, Chase Hunter broke out of his recent shooting slump, and the Tigers ended their three-game skid with a 94-54 win over Florida State at Littlejohn Coliseum. Clemson (19-7, 11-4 ACC) led by 21 at the half and never looked back in the most lopsided ACC win in program history.

“Terrific performance by our team,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said.

Clemson, which bounced back from its largest margin of defeat at North Carolina over the weekend, remained a game back of Pitt and Virginia and half a game behind Miami at the top of the ACC standings with five regular-season games left. And while the victory won’t do much to improve the Tigers’ postseason resume – FSU’s NET ranking was 211 coming in – it was a Quad 4 result Clemson had to have with another Quad 4 game coming up for the Tigers on Saturday at last-place Louisville.

“It will definitely be a momentum-booster for us,” Hunter said. “I wouldn’t say we were down these past weeks, but losing isn’t fun. So getting this win and going into the next game, it’s definitely a big game for us. (This game) is going to be huge for our confidence going into that game.”

Hunter, who’d been shooting less than 24% over the last three games, made six of his first seven shots, setting the tone for an 18-point effort from the Tigers’ point guard. Hunter is averaging 22 points against FSU (8-19, 6-10) this season dropping a career-high 26 on the Seminoles in the teams’ first matchup on Jan. 28.

“For me, it was just staying confident in myself, going out there and playing my game,” said Hunter, who also dished out a team-high six assists with just one turnover.

Meanwhile, Hall made eight of his 10 shots while Hunter Tyson added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Tigers, who overwhelmed FSU by shooting 60.3% from the floor. Clemson also held FSU to 42.9% shooting.

“I feel like they were more motivated,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.

Clemson also got 10 points from freshman guard Josh Beadle, his first game in double figures. Baba Miller led FSU with 12 points.

Clemson led 47-26 at the break, its highest first-half point total of the season, after shooting 60% in the opening 20 minutes. Hunter (16) and Hall (12) combined for 28 of those points.

The Tigers continued to pour it on, combining 16 forced turnovers with their hot shooting to score the most regulation points in Brownell’s tenure as head coach. Clemson scored 31 points off those takeaways.

“Played really good on both ends,” Brownell said. “Shot it really well, which always helps. But I though our activity level defensively was good and created some turnovers.”

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