The snow could not keep the Tigers from having the hot hand inside Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, as Clemson cruised to its eighth ACC win in nine tries by defeating the Pitt Panthers, 63-52.
It was a slow offensive start to the afternoon for both teams, as a slew of missed shots and turnovers kept us knotted at 3-3 for nearly five minutes of gametime until Carter Welling’s layup broke the gridlock. From here, the two teams began to trade buckets. The Tigers shot the 3-ball much better than in their previous outing and finished the game 8-of-21 from downtown.
It didn’t take too much longer for Clemson to break out the scoring and create the gap between itself and the Panthers. The combination of Butta Johnson and Dillon Hunter stretched the lead to double-digits, and before you could blink, the Tigers went up 33-16 with under 90 seconds to play in the first half. The suffocating Clemson defense was beginning to swarm Pitt on every possession, and the Panthers could not find the basket for much of the final stretch in the first half. After trading missed shots to close the half, the score held at 33-16 to close the half.
The second half brought another slow start for the Tiger offense, and within the first five minutes of the half, the Panthers had cut the lead to single digits on an Omari Witherspoon layup. For most of the second half, the lead hovered between the 10-point and 15-point range, and it seemed Clemson had a comfortable grip against a team they had dominated since the Panthers joined the ACC. The Tigers’ lead got as high as 20 points after a Nick Davidson triple at the 4:57 mark, but a 10-0 run by Pitt cut the lead in half, and the problem with closing out games crept back into focus for Clemson.
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This time, however, the Tigers clamped down on defense and held Pitt scoreless for the remainder of the game. An RJ Godfrey free-throw was the only point scored over the final two minutes of action, and in the end, it turned out to be a comfortable win on a snowy afternoon in Clemson. The Tigers picked up their 15th straight win over the Panthers, and in the process, Brad Brownell picked up his 200th career home victory as the Tiger head coach.
Carter Welling and Nick Davidson each had a team-high 12 points on the afternoon, while Dillon Hunter proved to be a presence on the board, leading the team with six rebounds. Despite being outrebounded, Clemson held Pitt to just 38% shooting from the floor and forced 14 turnovers. In the game preview, we suggested Pitt needed to outrebound the Tigers and force double-digit turnovers (Clemson had 11 turnovers) to have a chance. The Panthers did both yet still lost by 11 points.
It was the 13th time this season that the Tigers held their opponent to under 65 points. The win improves Clemson’s record to 18-4 overall and 8-1 in ACC play. The Tigers remain in second place in the ACC, one game behind Duke. Pitt falls to 9-13 overall and 2-7 in ACC play.
Up next for Clemson is their West Coast road trip, starting with a Wednesday late night (10pm) tip at Stanford and concluding with a Saturday night tip (8pm) at Cal.
