Basketball
HALL POSTS DOUBLE-DOUBLE, CLEMSON BEATS NC STATE 70-64 TO ADVANCE IN ACC TOURNAMENT
- 2022-03-10 13:46:12
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The Tigers opened the ACC Tournament on Tuesday against NC State, who the Tigers beat 70-65 in Raleigh in their only meeting this season back in January. It was the first time since 1939 that the Tigers entered a post-season tournament riding a 4-game win streak, and that was when they were in the Southern Conference, before the ACC existed! This matchup featured the ACC's top 2 vote-getters for Most Improved Player--Dereon Seabron and PJ Hall--and they didn't disappoint.
PJ Hall made his first start since missing 4 games with his foot injury (he came in off the bench in Saturday's win over VA Tech), and he looked like a million bucks. Hall played a complete game and registered a double-double, scoring 18 points with 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists. Nick Honor made back-to-back 3's at a critical point in the second half when State cut the lead to 3 points, and the Tigers kept the lead at double digits for the most part after that. Honor was the second-leading scorer with 13 points. The Tigers shot just 6-23 from the arc, which was even worse than their 3-10 performance in Raleigh, but State managed to do worse than that at 4-23. Seabron got his points, as I expected, but the Tigers held him to 19, which is better than the 27 he posted in the first matchup. The Tigers took better care of the ball than they did in the first meeting, turning it over 10 times compared to 16, but they were just 14-23 from the free throw line.
The Tigers played well enough to get the win but will have to play better, in my opinion, to beat No.7 seed VA Tech for a second time in less than a week. It's tough to beat a good team twice in one season, let alone twice in less than a week! The Tigers won 63-59 on Senior Day on Saturday, but they won't have the home crowd in Brooklyn. On the other hand, I think there is an advantage to having won a game already in the tournament and being familiar with the lay of the land, versus coming in cold for your first game like the Hokies are. Tip is at 7:00 on ESPN2, and I'll have live updates at the link below.
Post-game interviews and highlights are also below!
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