Clemson can lock up a double bye in the ACC Tournament when it travels to Winston-Salem to take on Wake Forest in the regular season finale for both teams at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum Saturday.
The Tigers (21-9 overall) come into the weekend fourth in ACC standings. They’re tied with Pitt at 11-8 in conference play, but a tiebreaker would belong to Clemson since the team swept both games against the Panthers this season, including 69-62 on Feb. 27 at Littlejohn Coliseum.
A win by the Tigers would cap an 8-2 finish to the regular season after a rough 3-6 start against ACC opponents at the start of January.
In Tuesday’s 90-75 victory over Syracuse on Senior Night, Clemson got big nights from its seniors: 25 points from PJ Hall and 21 from Joe Girard. Chase Hunter added 17 points, and junior Ian Schieffelin tallied 16 points with 16 rebounds as the Tigers got a balanced effort on offense and defense.
With the NCAA Tournament looming, Clemson has been on the upswing in recent March Madness and bracketology forecasts. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has Clemson as a No. 5 seed in his latest tournament projections while CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm sees Clemson as a No. 6 seed.
Facing the Tigers is a Wake Forest team that has fallen flat since its 83-79 home victory over Duke two weekends ago. The game ended in a controversial court storming with Duke center Kyle Filipowski suffering an injury.
Since beating Duke, the Demon Deacons (18-12, 10-9) have lost three straight, all to mid- to lower-tier ACC competition: Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, and most recently Georgia Tech. That fall has taken Wake Forest as a team on the NCAA bubble to being an afterthought in NCAA Tournament projections.
Georgia Tech’s Baye Ndongo made a game-winning shot with 0.4 seconds left in a crushing Wake Forest loss on Tuesday. The game was the first home loss of the season for Wake, which was led by Hunter Sallis’ 22 points.
Series History and Recent History
Wake Forest leads the all-time head to head series with Clemson, 101-66, but Brad Brownell has compiled a 15-4 record against the Demon Deacons in his 13 seasons as Tigers head coach. Wake Forest is Clemson’s second most common opponent in school history behind North Carolina. The Tigers have won four of the past six meetings against the ‘Deacs’ dating back to 2020.
How To Watch
Here’s a look at how and where Clemson fans can watch, listen, and stream Saturday’s game.
Date: Saturday, March 9
Time: 6 p.m. EST
Where: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum
TV Channel: ACC Network
Live Stream: ESPN+
Radio: Clemson Athletic Network | TuneIn App | SiriusXM (Channel 383)
Broadcast Teams
ACC Network: Wes Durham, Eric Devendorf
Clemson Radio: Don Munson, Tim Bourret