Clemson Men’s Basketball: Tigers tame Broncos, 85-68

Clemson Men’s Basketball moved to 4-0 on the young season by dismantling the Boise State to the tune of 44-30 in the second half behind the torrid shooting of guard Joe Girard to win 85-68.

Girard finished with 23 points on 9 of 17 shooting in only 29 minutes on the court, while P.J. Hall and Chase Hunter chipped in 14 apiece.

In our game preview, we mentioned that the Tigers needed to hit the offensive boards and make their free throws and they accomplished both of those, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds and shooting 15 of 16 from the line.

R.J. Godfrey led the Tigers with 4 offensive boards, including several in the first half that led to second-chance points when the game was still in doubt.

Godfrey totaled 7 rebounds overall, chipped in 6 points and had 4 blocks in 24 minutes of action.

Chauncey Wiggins chipped in 9 points in only 11 minutes on the court, but looked silky smooth on the jumper.

As a team, the Tigers shot 50.8% from the field and an even better 53.3% (8 of 15) from three-point range.

Ian Schieffelin led the Tigers with 9 total rebounds and Clemson dominated the boards to the tune of 40-25 on the day, leading to 19 second chance points on the day for a team that came in averaging only 7.3 second chance points per game, one of the lowest numbers in the nation.

This is a good Boise team, that came in ranked right behind the Tigers in the KenPom.com rankings, that was comparable in length with the Tigers, but Clemson’s athleticism was on display early and often.

The win should boost the Tigers profile, both in overall rankings and in non-conference strength of schedule rankings.

It sounds really simple, but Clemson is going to be tough to beat if they rebound offensively and make their free throws.

One bugaboo that wasn’t fixed today was P.J. Hall getting into foul trouble, this time in each half.

Hall sat the final four minutes of the first half after picking up his second foul and from that point the Tigers 7 point lead melted to 3 at the half with Hall on the bench.

Hall started the second half and after a rotation out he retuned to the game with 13:52 left and was removed 48 seconds later after picking up foul No. 3.

By the time he returned the Tigers had the game in hand, but Hall was limited to 24 minutes on the day.

Needless to say the Tigers will need Hall on the court in the coming contests.

Clemson Men’s Basketball has tough five game stretch ahead

After hosting Alcorn State on Friday at Littlejohn Coliseum the Tigers face off with  five teams in the KenPom.com top 67:  Alabama (5), Pittsburgh (40), South Carolina (67), TCU (24) and Memphis (29).

The Tigers are currently projected to lose all of those games except the South Carolina tilt, so a win in any of the other games would be a resume boost.