Clemson Men's Basketball: Tigers take on Highlanders in final tune-up for ACC play

The 10-1 Clemson Men's Basketball team takes on the 10-4 Radford Highlanders Friday evening at Littlejohn Coliseum in their final contest before 19 consecutive ACC conference games to finish the regular season.

The Tigers are coming off a 109-79 thrashing of Queens College last Friday, facing a Highlanders team that has played everyone from North Carolina (86-70 loss) to Eastern Mennonite (84-47 win).

Most recently Radford beat West Virginia by a point on December 20, is on a five-game winning streak and has won eight of their last nine.

The Highlanders profile very similar to the Tigers, getting 33% of their points from three-point range, 50% on two-pointers and 17% from the line.

Clemson will have a distinct height advantage in this matchup as the Highlanders generally start three guards.

Offensively Radford is led by 5'11 sophomore Kenyon Giles at 14.6 points per game. with DaQuan Smith adding 13.8 points and Bryan Antoine at 10.7.

Justin Archer, a 6'7 junior forward, leads the Highlanders on the boards at 8.6 per contest.

Radford plays at a slower pace than Clemson, so look for this one could entail a slower pace of play.

Clemson is led by 6'10 senior P.J. Hall, who's averaging 20.8 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.5 blocks per game in just over 28 minutes on the court per contest.

Hall is shooting 56.6% from the field, with an effective field goal percentage of 62.8%, 77.6% from the line and 39.6% from three-point land.

Joe Girard, III and Chase Hunter also average double figures for Clemson, at 14.8 and 10.5 points respectively.

Ian Schieffelin leads Clemson on the boards at 9.4 rebounds per game.

The Tigers enter the game ranked 12th in the NET Rankings and own a 3-1 record against Quad 1 teams.

The Tigers have shown some improvement on the weaker parts of their game, namely offensive rebounding, but it's still a weakness that won't be solved against a team like Radford.

Clemson is currently in the 38th percentile in the country in offensive rebounding percentage and 35th percentile in second chance points.

Clemson Men's Basketball completes non-conference play Friday against Radford at Littlejohn Coliseum

The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ACCNX.

The Tigers will be prohibitive favorites in this game and should be a 15 to 17-point favorite to win the game.

This game won't be as easy as the last one, but Clemson has a distinct skill and height advantage over the Highlanders from the Big South Conference.

Through their first 11 games, Brad Brownell's team has shown the ability to play to a standard rather than up or down to the level of their opponent.

Until proven otherwise, I expect more of the same from this veteran group and Clemson to take care of business by 15-20 points.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.