When the Clemson Tigers dedicate themselves to playing defense, they are a tough squad to handle. They proved that again on Wednesday as they pulled away from the Stanford Cardinal in the second half of an 85-71 win at Littlejohn Coliseum.
The victory moves head coach Brad Brownell's team to 3-0 in ACC play and 11-3 overall. Meanwhile, Stanford falls to 9-4 overall and 1-1 in conference games.
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Tigers. Four of their five starters reached double digits in the scoring column. That included a game-high 22 points from Chase Hunter and a season-high 17 from Chauncey Wiggins. What was odd, though, was that the team's heart and soul, Ian Schieffelin was held to just four points and four rebounds.
That wasn't a problem because big man Viktor Lakhin had one of the more important efforts of the day. Playing despite being under the weather, the transfer from Cincinnati went head to head with Stanford's star post player, Maxime Raynaud who entered the game averaging 21.4 points and 11.8 rebounds per game.
Lakhin nearly equaled Raynaud's output as the Clemson center had 11 points, seven rebounds, and five blocks while Raynaud mustered 14 points, 13 rebounds, and a pair of blocks. Because Lakhin was able to make this an even matchup in the paint, it took away an advantage that Stanford desperately needed to exploit in order to prevail.
Another key for the Tigers was the free-throw line. That's where Clemson was 21-24 (87.5%) while Stanford was just 11-12 (91.7%).
On defense, Clemson turned up the pressure, especially in the second half when the home team outscored the Cardinal by a 12-point margin. For the game, Clemson forced 17 turnovers while giving the ball away only 10 times.
Leading that charge, as usual, was Jaeden Zackery. The point guard is Clemson's best on-ball defender and on Wednesday he came up with four steals to go along with 16 points, six assists, and five rebounds.
This was an expected win for Clemson given that Stanford was picked to finish 16th in the conference preseason poll but that doesn't take away from its impressiveness. The Tigers were coming off of a week-and-a-half-long break and they were playing on a holiday in front of a somewhat sleepy home crowd.
Still, the Tigers brought the energy and the fire in the second half. They showed that they are one of the best and most consistent teams in the ACC and they stayed perfect in league play.
Now, Clemson will welcome Cal to Littlejohn on January 4th before a tricky road test at Louisville on January 7th. It was a great start to 2025 for the Tigers on Wednesday, though, as they handled their business and stayed tied with Duke atop the ACC standings.