Clemson basketball leads ACC, Hunter Tyson is 'amazing' and here comes Duke
CLEMSON – Louisville's defense focused intently on Hunter Tyson.
And yet what the Cardinals saw close up from Clemson basketball’s leader Wednesday night was another performance that has him looking like a conference player of the year. Despite their best efforts to slow him down, Tyson scored 28 points and had 11 rebounds as the Tigers took an 83-70 win at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Clemson (14-3, 6-0) is off to the best start in its ACC history and will host No. 24 Duke (13-4, 4-2) on Saturday (5 p.m., ACC Network) at a sold-out arena.
“Amazing,” Louisville coach Kenny Payne said. “He’s the one guy on this team that we really wanted to target, to know where he is at all times, and he gets 28 and 11. That goes to show he plays hard, he’s skilled, he passes the ball, he’s unselfish, he lets the game come to him and he’s efficient. Hell of a player, hell of a player.”
Tyson, a graduate student, had double-figure points and rebounds for the fifth consecutive game. He’s averaging a double-double, in fact, and the last Clemson player to do that for an entire season was Sharone Wright in 1993-94. Tyson’s 31 points and 15 rebounds against N.C.State was the most impressive double-double since Horace Grant in 1986-87.
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“He’s just playing with a lot of confidence,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “... He’s shooting balls in, he’s attacking the basket, he’s rebounding. In huddles, his voice is the loudest. He’s just a mature player.”
It's already been a history-making season for Tyson and Clemson. Knocking off Duke, though, would send shockwaves through the ACC. The Tigers were picked to finish in 11th place.
“We’ve just done a really good job of working hard every day, treating every day as a new opportunity to get better and just really trying to take care of business every time we step on the floor," Tyson said. "I think if we can just continue to take it one day at a time, we can continue to have success.”
Clemson got off to a slow start against struggling Louisville (2-15, 0-6). But Tyson was sure doing all he could to spark the Tigers. He scored their first five points on a three-point play off an offensive rebound and a driving dunk. He was providing energy in the huddles. Still, the Cardinals went ahead, 16-7, before things got rolling for the home team. Tyson made a 3-pointer (he would finish 4-for-7) and added two free throws to cap an 18-2 answer.
Down the stretch, after Louisville had rallied to cut Clemson’s lead to 72-66, Tyson made another 3-pointer to put it out of reach again.
“I was just playing my game,” he said, “taking what the defense gave me.”
Even when the defense wanted to give him nothing.
Todd Shanesy covers Clemson athletics for the USA TODAY Network.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Clemson basketball leads ACC, Hunter Tyson is 'amazing' and Duke next
