Tigers blow out BC to advance in ACC Tournament |
GREENSBORO, NC – It turns out that Reggie Jackson was wrong – the Clemson Tigers can play good defense on a neutral court. The mercurial Boston College guard, who scored 27 points in the Eagles’ Thursday win over Wake Forest, said after that contest that his Eagles wanted the Tigers over any other ACC team, that the Tigers are a good team “at home, but now we get them on a neutral court.” Jackson’s quotes were posted on Clemson’s bulletin board before Friday’s game, and the Tigers responded with a workmanlike 70-47 win over the Eagles in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum, Clemson’s first win in the tourney since 2008. The win may have burst Jackson’s “bubble” in more ways than one, as many pundits considered Clemson, Boston College and Virginia Tech as vying for a few of the last spots in the NCAA Tournament, and Friday’s win seemingly ensures Clemson’s entrance into the field, while Boston College may be on the outside looking in. Clemson shot 45 percent on 23-of-51 shooting and clamped down on one of the ACC's best 3-point shooting teams to win a game both teams desperately needed to win. Boston College shot just 6-of-24 from 3-point range and just 17-of-50 overall. Jackson was held to 11 points by Demontez Stitt, including just 1-of-6 from beyond the arc. “I’m proud of the way we executed the game plan,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “I thought we showed great defensive discipline today. Boston College is a hard team to guard because of the way they play, spreading the court with shooters you know are going to take a bunch of three’s. But I thought we did a good job of contesting them. We had a good mix to our game offensively. I thought we got out in transition and Demontez was very good at finishing plays around the rim.” Stitt scored 20 points to lead the Tigers, while Jerai Grant added 12 points and Milton Jennings had 10 for the fourth-seeded Tigers (21-10). Joe Trapani scored 20 points to lead fifth-seeded BC (20-12). The Tigers will face North Carolina at 1 p.m. on Saturday in the first semifinal contest. The game will be televised on ESPN and The ACC Network. The winner advances to Sunday’s ACC Tournament Championship Game, which starts at 1 p.m. as well. The Tigers jumped out to a 33-25 halftime lead, leading by double digits at several points, but pulled away earl in the second half. Stitt scored at least 14 points for the ninth straight game, and Grant had three of his four blocked shots in a quick three-and-a-half minute spurt early in the second half in which Clemson began to pull away. The Tigers made Brad Brownell the winningest first-year coach in school history and won just their fifth ACC tournament game since 1998. The Tigers never trailed and in the second half had a double-digit lead for all but about 2 minutes, going up by double figures to stay when Stitt beat the Eagles down court for a layup that made it 38-27 with 17:45 left. Stitt pushed the lead into the twenties about 10 minutes later when he finger-rolled a layup that made it 56-35. The final flurry came when Stitt found Grant underneath for a dunk with 3:51 remaining to make is 66-47 Tigers. Barely a minute later Stitt bounded into the lane and followed a missed Tanner Smith jumper by tapping the ball into the basket to make 68-47, and the game was over for all intents and purposes. Clemson guard Andre Young said the Tigers were aware of several Jackson comments. “I didn't hear that one comment, but I heard others that we put up on our wall to motivate us to come out here and play hard and play well,” Young said in the locker room following the game. “Supposedly they wanted to play us again and they wanted to come out and get revenge. We just played hard and the best team will win.” Senior guard Zay Anderson, who chipped in two big 3-pointers, said the Tigers proved Jackson wrong. “We knew about it,” he said. “It wasn't really a big thing to us. We knew he made those comments. We just wanted to come out and play defense. I guess we proved them wrong - we won the game.” Brownell said he hoped the win solidified Clemson’s chances at an NCAA bid. “I don’t know. I would hope so,” he said. “I think if you look at our body of work here recently, we’ve played very well. Certainly, to beat a very good Boston College team the way we did speaks to how well we’ve been playing. I’ve heard ‘elimination game’ for our team at least the last two games, if not more than that. I think these guys have responded every time and played exceptionally well, and we’re riding the coattails.” 
AUDIO: Zavier Anderson post-game comments
AUDIO: Jerai Grant post-game comments AUDIO: Andre Young post-game comments
VISITORS: #5 Boston College 20-12, 9-7
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
00 Jackson, Reggie..... * 5-13 1-6 0-2 1 2 3 2 11 4 6 1 1 38
05 Paris, Biko......... * 3-7 3-6 0-0 0 0 0 2 9 2 2 0 0 31
11 Raji, Corey......... * 1-10 0-5 0-0 2 2 4 2 2 2 0 1 1 28
12 Trapani, Joe........ * 7-15 2-5 4-4 0 5 5 2 20 1 2 0 1 31
20 Cahill, John........ * 0-1 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 29
04 Moton, Gabe......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 2 0 4 0 0 0 23
14 Mosakowski, Nick.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
24 Kowalski, Chris..... 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
25 Rehnquist, Peter.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
30 Elmore, Dallas...... 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 0 0 8
52 Southern, Josh...... 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 4 4 4 3 0 2 0 0 8
55 Dunn, Cortney....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 3 4
Totals.............. 17-50 6-24 7-10 6 20 26 17 47 13 13 2 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-22 36.4% 2nd Half: 9-28 32.1% Game: 34.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-11 18.2% 2nd Half: 4-13 30.8% Game: 25.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 7-8 87.5% 2nd Half: 0-2 0.0% Game: 70.0% 0
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HOME TEAM: #4 Clemson 21-10, 9-7
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Stitt, Demontez..... * 8-15 0-3 4-5 2 6 8 2 20 4 3 0 0 34
05 Smith, Tanner....... * 1-5 1-3 0-2 2 1 3 2 3 1 2 1 1 25
11 Young, Andre........ * 3-6 2-3 1-2 1 2 3 2 9 2 0 1 1 35
31 Booker, Devin....... * 1-6 0-1 4-6 0 7 7 2 6 2 2 1 2 23
45 Grant, Jerai........ * 5-9 0-0 2-2 1 4 5 3 12 1 2 4 2 29
03 Anderson, Zavier.... 2-2 2-2 1-2 1 4 5 2 7 1 0 1 1 18
04 Baize, Jonah........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
10 Baciu, Catalin...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
12 Stanton, Cory....... 1-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 8
21 Narcisse, Bryan..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 9
24 Jennings, Milton.... 2-6 2-4 4-4 1 2 3 0 10 2 1 0 0 17
TEAM................ 1 1 2 1
Totals.............. 23-51 8-17 16-23 9 30 39 14 70 14 11 8 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 13-30 43.3% 2nd Half: 10-21 47.6% Game: 45.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-10 40.0% 2nd Half: 4-7 57.1% Game: 47.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 13-17 76.5% Game: 69.6% 6
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Officials: Jamie Luckie, Brian Dorsey, Dwayne Gladden
Technical fouls: #5 Boston College-None. #4 Clemson-None.
Attendance: 23381
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
#5 Boston College............. 25 22 - 47
#4 Clemson.................... 33 37 - 70
Points in the paint-BC 20,CU 24. Points off turnovers-BC 13,CU 16.
2nd chance points-BC 0,CU 12. Fast break points-BC 7,CU 14.
Bench points-BC 5,CU 20. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-BC 2nd-04:16, CU 2nd-01:03.
Largest lead-BC None, CU by 23 2nd-01:03.
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