Sometimes, teams that return home after a successful series of road games tend to fall into traps as they let their guard down, especially against bad teams. Fortunately, that didn't happen to the Clemson basketball team on Wednesday night as the Tigers had no trouble with the Syracuse Orange.
In Clemson's 86-72 win, senior guard Chase Hunter poured in 23 points and big man Viktor Lakhin added 16 as the Tigers moved to 8-1 in ACC play to stay in second place in the league race.
The first half saw Syracuse come out hot, especially guard J.J. Starling who tried his best to keep his team in the game scoring 17 of his 25 points in the first half. However, because of nine Syracuse turnovers and a ton of easy Clemson buckets against a bad Orange defense, the home team was able to pull away to hold a 48-29 lead at the break. After halftime, the Tigers kept the visitors at arm's length to cruise to a stress-free win.
Though Starling shot 62.5% from the field, the rest of his team couldn't keep pace against the stingy Tigers. Outside of Starling's 10-16 shooting performance, the Orange made just 18 shots on the night. What's more, only one of Starling's teammates scored in double figures (Eddie Lampkin Jr. had 14 points).
As for Clemson, the offense was easy to come by. Four of the five starters scored at least 11 points. That included Lakhin who rebounded from a poor showing against Pitt on Saturday.
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After going just 1-4 from the field for three points against the Panthers, Lakhin was back to being an offensive force on Wednesday night making six of his 11 shots including two of his four 3-point attempts. That's the type of effort the Tigers need to see on a consistent basis from the post player who has scored in double figures just twice in his last six games.
The Tigers made scoring look easy most of the night against a Syracuse team that has struggled on defense for most of the season. Clemson had 17 assists to just seven turnovers with Jaeden Zackery leading the way with five helpers to go along with 14 points.
With the win, Clemson stays tied with Louisville for second place in the ACC race a half-game ahead of 7-1 Wake Forest. Everyone is still chasing 8-0 and second-ranked Duke so it is important that the Tigers continue to win to keep pressure on the Blue Devils until the two teams finally meet in Clemson on February 8.
For now, though, the Tigers have a string of games in which they will be considerable favorites. They next head back out on the road to face an 8-11 Virginia Tech team and a 9-9 NC State squad. Then, before taking on Duke, Clemson will host Georgia Tech, a team that the Tigers already dismantled in Atlanta just two games ago.
Hopefully, the Tigers can keep rolling through the weak portion of the schedule to make the game with Duke truly meaningful as far as the ACC regular-season standings go. If they play as efficiently as they did on Wednesday night, they should handle their business and make February 8th a game for the ages at Littlejohn.