Hall's energy drives Clemson late in big win over Florida State

PJ Hall scored 15 to lead the Tigers. (Photo: Dawson Powers / USATODAY)

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Feb 02 21:24:30 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – An injured PJ Hall continues to lead the Clemson basketball team, and he scored four late points and kept the crowd in the game as the Tigers defeated Florida State 75-69 at Littlejohn Coliseum Wednesday night.

Clemson improves to 12-9 overall and 4-6 in the ACC, while Florida State falls to 13-8 overall and 6-5 in ACC play. Clemson has now won three out of the last four in the series, and the Tigers are 23-13 all-time against Florida State in Littlejohn Coliseum.

Hall scored 15 to lead the Tigers, and he grabbed seven rebounds. Chase Hunter and Nick Honor each scored 12, while Naz Bohannon added 11. David Collins grabbed eight rebounds as the Tigers out-rebounded the Seminoles 37-24. The Tigers hit 15-of-21 free throws and were 6-of-15 from beyond the arc.

The Tigers opened up an early 8-2 lead, and continued with that working margin until Honor hit a 3-pointer at the 11:17 mark that gave Clemson a 20-12 lead. The Seminoles scored seven points in a row that made it 20-19, and a minute later John Butler hit a 3-pointer that made it 23-22 Clemson with 7:58 to play in the half.

However, Alex Hemenway hit three free throws and Chase Hunter scored on a layup that pushed the Tigers’ advantage to 28-22. Once again the Seminoles clawed back, scoring eight out of the next ten points to tie the score at 30-30 with 4:15 left to play in the half.

Clemson outscored FSU 15-6 over the final four minutes, and when Honor’s shot with one second left fell through, the Tigers left the court with a 45-36 at intermission.

Both teams dug in defensively in the second half. The Tigers extended their lead to 12 when Chase Hunter hit two free throws five minutes into the second half, and Clemson led 55-43.

Late in the game, Clemson went over three minutes without a bucket, allowing the Seminoles to cut the lead to 67-64 with 6:22 to play. After cutting Clemson’s lead to three, Florida State had a nearly three minute scoring drought of its own before Caleb Mills hit a jumper and a free throw on the ensuing possession to make it a 69-67 Clemson advantage with 2:25 to play.

Enter Hall. Hall hit a pair of free throws with 1:58 to play as he signaled to the crowd for more energy and more noise in the final minutes of the game. The Seminoles lost the ball out of bounds on the ensuing possession and turned it over as they failed to inbound the ball on the baseline.

After Hall’s two free throws made it 73-67 with 1:15 to play, the Seminoles weren’t able to come any closer than five.

Clemson returns to action Saturday, traveling to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech in a 2 pm tipoff (RSN).