Clemson grabbed its ninth ACC win last night with a 72-57 victory over Virginia Tech. And impressively, the team did it without star Chase Hunter for most of the game.
While the final score indicates a stomping from the Tigers, Tech held its own for a significant portion of the game. Without Hunter, Clemson struggled to score for the first 15 minutes, allowing the Hokies to stay within reach. And again, Virginia Tech made a move to take the lead in the second half.
Clemson weathered all the storms the Hokies threw its way and inevitably pulled away before the buzzer. Again, without Hunter, it needed to be a team effort.
Clemson basketball vs Virginia Tech: Beyond the box score
Everyone contributes
The usual playmakers like Hunter and Ian Schieffelin were offensive no-shows against Tech, so the Tigers needed to find other players to fill in the gaps. In the first half, there were three of them.
Chauncey Wiggins, Viktor Lakhin, and Jaeden Zackery played significant roles in yesterday's win. Wiggins had a game-high 16 points, with 10 coming in the first 20 minutes. Following closely behind Wiggins, Lakhin and Zackery scored eight and seven points, respectively, in the first period.
However, in the second half, another scorer stepped up. True Freshman Del Jones was perfect from the floor, making all three of his shots. He also drained 3/4 opportunities from the free throw line, scoring nine points, bested by only Toibu Lawal of Virginia Tech in the second half.
While Schieffelin only scored six points, with four coming in garbage time, he did pull in a game-high seven boards.
Paint points
Clemson has made its living from beyond the arc, but tonight, it was being able to get to the basket — and, more importantly, keeping the Hokies out — that put the game out of reach.
The Tigers scored 36 points in the point in the post while making two fewer three-pointers than their average. They're the twelfth-best team in the country in terms of three-point percentage but fell six percentage points lower than their average yesterday and still found a way to win.
It's great that Clemson found a way to make up for its electric shooter playing only 10 minutes, but stopping Tech from scoring easy points made the difference. In the first half, Virginia Tech scored only four in the lane. Contrastly, the Tigers scored 22.
Lakhin and Schieffelin smothered shooters in the paint, but it was a strong defensive effort from guards like Dillon Hunter and Zackery. Unfortunately, it showed on the box score, with Tech attempting 12 shots at the charity stripe, compared to only one by Clemson in the first period. But luckily, the Hokies couldn't take advantage, shooting 57.1 percent from the free-throw line.
Game of runs
Runs are inevitable in the game of basketball. That's why it's referred to as a game of runs. And whoever controls the most usually wins. On Saturday, there were three.
Clemson won the first, going on a 17-3 run in the last five minutes of the first half. When the run started, the Tigers were down 26-24 but went into the locker room up 41-29. Three-point shots from Zackery, Wiggins, and Jake Heidbreder fueled Clemson's run, but its defense held Tech without a field goal at the same time, with the Hokies' only points coming from free throws.
As common as runs are, teams seldomly control all in a game. Virginia Tech came out of the locker room with a massive run of their own, nearly erasing Clemson's in the previous period.
Other than a quick five points by the Tigers to start the second half, the Hokies controlled the first 10 minutes, scoring 16 points to Clemson's three. The Tigers immediately countered with the final run of the night, outscoring Tech 11-4 in the following three minutes.