Clemson snaps losing streak with win over Boston College
After his team’s third straight loss to open the year on Wednesday night, Clemson coach Brad Brownell issued a challenge to leading scorer PJ Hall to fight harder and to play like an All-American.
Challenge accepted.
Hall and Joe Girard each had 26 points to give No. 21 Clemson an 89-78 victory over an outmatched Boston College team on Saturday afternoon at Littlejohn Coliseum. It was the Tigers’ first victory since Dec. 29.
Clemson (12-4 overall, 2-3 conference) looked good in most every phase of the game. Playing in front of a packed house dressed primarily in purple for both Military Appreciation Day and Alumni Day, the Tigers shot 54.2 percent from the floor and out-rebounded their opponent, 38-23.
After leading by nine at halftime, Clemson started the second half with a 15-7 run and would open up a 19-point lead — the largest of the game — at 72-53 with 8:30 to play. It was a noticeable change from the past three games when opponents overwhelmed the Tigers in the opening minutes of the second half.
Boston College (10-6 overall, 1-4 conference), playing without top scorer Quinten Post due to a stomach illness, made a late run to trim the lead to 11. But the Eagles never got back to within single digits down the stretch.
Girard had five 3-pointers and was 8-of-16 from the floor in the Tigers’ victory.
But it was Hall who stood out the most, connecting on 10 of 18 shots overall, including six of eight in the second half. The 6’10” senior also added 18 rebounds.
Brownell had said that Hall needed to step up his game after he was held to just 11 points in the Tigers’ anemic performance in a blowout loss at Virginia Tech earlier in the week.
In Saturday’s turnaround, Hall had 12 points in the first half alone. He began the second half 5-for-5 shooting.
Hall made a move past Mason Madsen to get to the basket for a layup to give Clemson its first points after halftime. On his final shot of the game, Hall drove through the lane and slammed one home with 1:11 to play to put an exclamation point on his performance.
The Tigers held Boston College to 41.9 percent shooting in the first half, a sharp contrast to the 61.9 percent that Virginia Tech shot in the opening stanza three nights earlier.
Jaeden Zackery had 18 points to lead Boston College, and Claudell Harris, Jr. added 17.
Clemson returns to action Tuesday night when they host Georgia Tech (8-7 overall, 1-3 conference) in a 9 p.m. tipoff. The game will be televised by ACC Network.
