For 30 minutes of Saturday's game at NC State, the Clemson basketball team looked exactly like one might expect a team coming off of a week-long layoff to look. Fortunately, the Tigers played their best basketball down the stretch to pull away from the Wolfpack for a 68-58 win.
Chase Hunter had a team-high 20 points and Viktor Lakhin had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds to power the Tigers to their sixth win in a row. Clemson now sits at 10-1 in ACC play and 18-4 overall on the season.
After Clemson led 34-31 at the intermission, the Wolfpack was able to scratch its way to a one-point lead, 39-38, with just over 14 minutes to play. That was thanks to a Clemson scoring drought that lasted over six minutes.
However, the Tigers would soon retake the lead and hold it for the remainder of the game. Still, the Wolfpack had one last run in mind.
By the 3:51 mark of the second half, the home team cut a one-time 10-point Clemson lead to 59-53 thanks to back-to-back scores off of offensive rebounds. That's when Clemson head coach Brad Brownell called a timeout and after that break, his team responded in a big way.
Closing out the game on a 9-5 spurt, the Tigers eventually put the Wolfpack to bed. Immediately after the timeout, Dillon Hunter drained a clutch 3-pointer and then Chase Hunter came up with four quick points on a dunk off of a steal and a key jumper.
That 7-0 run pushed the Clemson advantage back to 66-53 and essentially ended any hopes of an upset by NC State. Though the Tigers didn't play well for most of the game, they put it together when it mattered and did enough to keep their winning streak intact. So let's go inside the box score for some quick thoughts on how Clemson was able to put this game on the right side of the ledger.
Clemson essentially won this game at the free-throw line
It is unusual for a road team to have a decided advantage at the three-throw line. That's because close calls usually go the way of the home team, especially in college basketball.
However, on Saturday, Clemson basically won this game by getting to the line more than NC State and then converting those opportunities into points.
The Tigers were 10-12 (83.3%) from the line as a team. Meanwhile, NC State was just 3-6 (50%). To limit a team to only six free throws in its own arena is quite a feat and that was a huge reason Clemson was able to come out on top.
A Clemson role player steps up
Clemson fans have come to expect big things from Chase Hunter on a game-by-game basis. The X-factor for this team, though, seems to be junior Chauncey Wiggins.
When Wiggins plays well, Clemson has enough firepower to be rather difficult to beat. However, he doesn't always contribute positively, especially as a scorer. For instance, in all four of Clemson's losses this year, he's failed to score in double figures.
Against NC State, Wiggins was his team's third-leading scorer with 11 points. He was 4-8 from the floor and 1-2 from 3-point range. It was good that he was a reliable scoring option on Saturday because, in 32 minutes of action, he grabbed no rebounds, handed out no assists, blocked no shots, and came up with no steals.
Wiggins was only a scorer on Saturday but in a game that was a defensive battle, that was much needed as he did enough to help his team prevail.
Clemson takes care of the ball
Another important stat from this game was Clemson's turnover total. Giving the ball away only five times, the Tigers did a great job of taking care of the ball in hostile territory.
One story from this game was that NC State dominated the glass. They out-rebounded the Tigers 38-28 and because they had 13 offensive rebounds, they had six more shot attempts than Clemson did.
However, because Clemson took care of the ball and didn't give NC State even more opportunities to expand their shot volume advantage, the Tigers survived a bad rebounding performance.
NC State didn't make the most of its work on the offensive glass coming up with only eight second-chance points. Plus, the Wolfpack had only three points off of turnovers.
Meanwhile, Clemson had 13 points off of 12 NC State turnovers, which mitigated the home team's advantage on the glass. That's why it is so imperative to take care of the ball, especially when playing away from home.