Basketball
CLEMSON CRUSHES NOTRE DAME 87-64 ON SENIOR NIGHT TO FINISH 3RD IN ACC STANDINGS
- 2023-03-05 22:35:26
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CLEMSON, SC - The Tigers knew they had to take care of business against Notre Dame on Senior Night to bolster their NCAA resume, and they did just that, leaving no doubt from start to finish. It had to be an emotional night for the seniors, especially Hunter Tyson, playing their last game in Littlejohn, but they were all business, focused and dialed in. Fittingly, it was seniors Tyson and Galloway who opened the scoring for the Tigers with a pair of 3's. They jumped out to a 20-3 lead and never looked back, leading the whole way and by as many as 27. All 5 starters scored in double digits, led by 16 from Tyson and sophomore Ian Schieffelen, who had a tremendous game. PJ Hall scored 15 and joined the 1,000 point club as a junior.
It was an electric, sold-out crowd at Littlejohn for Senior Night, and the Tigers went 15-1 at home this season. They finished 22-9 overall and 3rd place in the ACC with a 14-6 conference record. No Clemson team had ever won more than 11 conference games before this season. The bracketologists may have Clemson a spot or two outside the NCAA field, but in my opinion, they have punched their ticket with this win. I'm pretty sure the selection committee has never left out a 3rd place team from the ACC, and I don't see that changing this year for the benefit of Big 12 teams at the bottom of the Big 12 with terrible records. If that happens, this whole NET and quad system that has been adopted over the last few years needs to be scrapped entirely! ESPN's Joe Lunardi, for example, has Pitt, NC State and Penn State all in his bracket with Clemson in the first four out, even thought the Tigers are 5-0 against those opponents, including 2 road wins and a better record than all of them. They beat NC State by a combined 39 points in their two meetings! With the 3 seed in the ACC Tournament, the Tigers will receive a double-bye and play on Thursday night against the winner of NC State and (likely) VA Tech, which opens against Notre Dame. The Tigers swept both State and VA Tech this season. The Tigers played both in the ACC Tournament last season, beating State and losing on a buzzer-beater three-pointer in overtime to the Hokies, who went on to win the tournament.
As is customary after the game, Brownell and the seniors made speeches to the crowd to say their goodbyes. Brownell got choked up while talking about Tyson and the other seniors, and this has been a very special team this season. Brownell spoke more about that after the game during our interview. I'll have video of the post-game speeches in a bit. In the meantime, highlights and our post-game interviews are below!
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