Clemson has played consecutive games without its starting frontcourt. The Tigers have won both of them.
Three days earlier, it was more than half a hundred combined points from Chase Hunter, Al-Amir Dawes and Nick Honor that propelled Clemson to an upset of Wake Forest. On Saturday, the Tigers’ defense stole the show.
Now Clemson (14-15, 6-12 ACC) has its first winning streak in ACC play following a 70-60 victory at Boston College. Chase Hunter poured in a career-high 23 points while Al-Amir Dawes added 16 points, and Clemson held the Eagles (11-17, 6-12) to just 36% shooting in their own building, a vast improvement from the teams’ first meeting more than a month earlier. Again without the services of two of its top three scorers in Hunter Tyson (broken clavicle) and PJ Hall (foot), Clemson also got a lift from freshman center Ben Middlebrooks, who posted career-highs in points (8), rebounds (9) and minutes (27).
Boston College made more than 48% of its shots back on Jan. 15 to escape Littlejohn Coliseum with a two-point win, pulling off one of the largest comebacks in ACC history in the process. This time around, Clemson clamped down to eventually pull away in what began as a tightly contested contest.
The Tigers trailed 35-34 with 15:03 left before holding the Eagles without a field goal for more than 8 minutes. Clemson took the lead on three free throws from Hunter, who scored eight straight points to ignite a 17-2 run that gave the Tigers their largest lead, 51-37, with 7:32 left.
Boston College answered with a 16-8 spurt over the next 5 minutes and change to get back within single digits, but defense again came through for the Tigers to stifle Boston College’s momentum. Naz Bohannon came up with a diving steal and got a timeout to preserve possession for Clemson with 1:40 left, and the Tigers made 11 of 14 free throws in the final 63 seconds to close out the win.
This story will be updated.