Clemson's backcourt shines in bounce back win over FSU

Chase Hunter played a key role in 13 3-pointers made for the Tigers, a season-high.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Saturday, January 11 2025

CLEMSON - The weekend snow wasn’t the only thing falling in Clemson.

As the sleet and ice melted outside Littlejohn, the heat was on from three-point land. The Tigers returned to the win column against FSU, taking the victory comfortably, 77-57.

Clemson moves to 5-1 in the ACC, sitting in third place in conference play behind Louisville (5-1) and Duke (6-0).

After sitting with the loss to Louisville for days, Brad Brownell’s team wasted no time rediscovering their rhythm on the home floor.

Tuesday night’s loss showed the Cardinals disrupting everything the Tigers tried to throw out on the road, leaving much to be desired in their first ACC loss.

Against the Seminoles, it was Clemson once again who dictated the results, especially from deep. The Tigers watched J’Vonne Hadley have a career evening in Tuesday’s loss, and had another star player, Jamir Watkins, coming to town.

Watkins hit two early threes, but the only stat that accumulated the rest of the way was the decibel number the home crowd could hit when he held the ball.

Clemson held Florida State to a season-low 57 points, contrasting the defensive intensity against the Cardinals. Chauncey Wiggins knew a performance on that side of the ball was important today, knowing that intensity is their greatest asset.

"I would just say we're real big on defense," Wiggins said. "Defense is our superpower and we knew we had to stop these guys and run a transition and get some easy ones. So glad we did that today."

Another metric the Tiger faithful appreciated was the steaming start from deep, as the offense began by hitting seven of their first ten threes.

Leading the way was Chase Hunter, who dropped 25 points in the bounce-back win. Hunter had a balanced attack, slashing inside for easy makes, while dropping four deep threes, which led the team. Hunter continues to be Clemson’s most reliable option for the offense, and his performance today was no different.

Hunter’s offense wasn’t the only standout in the backcourt, as Jaeden Zackery contributed with double figures as well.

Zackery dropped a few threes of his own, contributing to Clemson's hot start from deep. His defensive presence was also displayed, adding a steal to his totals.

The banner day for the Clemson backcourt wasn’t limited to the starters.

Del Jones provided a spark in 16 minutes of action, totaling nine points off three makes from outside. The freshman led all scorers off the bench.

Hunter knew that FSU would hunt some of their starters on defense, so Jones' nine points became incredibly valuable to adding some variety to the offensive punch.

"Del was great today, and we needed him," Hunter said. "We knew that they were going to deny a little bit, so we needed some guys who can drive and make plays, and he did that today."

Overall, the Tiger offense saw a jump in productivity, shooting 48.3 percent on the day, an improvement from the 40 percent outing on the road against Louisville.

Ian Schieffelin led the team with five assists. Viktor Lakin added seven points on the day, but sat in foul trouble for most of the afternoon.

Chauncey Wiggins dropped 12 points, making Clemson 8-0 when he reaches double figures.

Clemson will begin a two-game road trip starting with Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Tuesday, January 14th, at 9:00 p.m. on the ACC Network.