Clemson wins ninth straight over Boston College with 82-64 win at Conte Forum

Clemson’s hex over Boston College isn’t confined to the gridiron.

Clemson recorded its ninth straight men’s basketball victory over BC with an 82-64 smackdown on Saturday night at Conte Forum. BC fell to 13-15 overall, 7-10 in the ACC and will host Notre Dame on Wednesday night. Clemson improved to 14-12 and 8-8.

“I wish I could tell you, I just don’t know,” said BC coach Jim Christian of the orange curse. “We didn’t play well and they are playing well and they are in a really good rhythm.

“We needed to play with great effort that I thought we would undoubtedly do on Senior Day. We needed to play with great discipline and I don’t think we did either.”

Clemson shot a strong 68.9% from the floor with seven treys, 32 rebounds and 20 assists. Guard Al-Amir Dawes led five players in double figures with a career-high 22 points.

BC shot 37.7% from the floor with 7-of-26 from downtown and 25 rebounds. Freshman guard Jay Heath paced BC with 16 points off the bench.

“A great road win for us and everything is better when you shoot it like that,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell. “I think getting off to great starts in both halves was certainly key and gave our guys a little bit of juice.”

Up by 12 at the break, Clemson put the game out of reach with a 15-5 run in the opening five minutes of the second. Dawes buried two of Clemson’s three trifectas in the stretch, putting the Tigers up 56-34 into the first official’s timeout.

Brownell gave his bench players quality minutes while resting his starters for the upcoming ACC tournament.  A step-back jumper by graduate swingman Tevin Mack put the Tigers ahead 68-42 into the third officials’ timeout. Both dumpsters overflowed in garbage time.

“I give them credit, they made a lot of good plays,” said Christian. “They are playing well and we helped them a lot too, it was a combination of both.

“They played great and we obviously helped them play great.”

Christian burnt his first timeout 1:32 into the first half, a telling signal from the bench that events were running horribly amiss. The Tigers opened with consecutive treys and a reverse layup from the baseline by Dawes to go up, 8-0.

After falling behind 10-0 on a pair of John Newman free throws, BC went on a 9-4 spurt. Freshman guard Jay Heath brought the pushback with 3-ball and a transition layup.

“Right from the first play of the game when they got an uncontested three on simple closeout and that set the tone for me for the whole night,” said Christian.

BC grabbed enough defensive boards with a few forced turnovers to keep the score manageable through the midway point. Steffon Mitchell’s hard drive along the baseline cut the Tigers’ lead to 24-18 with 8:31 to play.

BC’s zone collapsed under the weight of uncontested layups and 3-point shots. The Tigers outscored BC 12-3 over a three-minute span to take a 36-21 lead into the fourth officials’ timeout. BC enjoyed a brief surge, but Tigers’ forward Aamir Simms (12 points) closed the frame with a trey and a put-back at the buzzer to give Clemson a 41-29 lead at the break.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Pe2OtF