Tigers douse Flames in early morning contest

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Tue Nov 17 15:43:23 GMT-04:00 2009

LYNCHBURG, Va. — The 2009-10 basketball season is just two games old, but to this point, the 22-ranked Clemson Tigers are having no problems scoring from three-point range.

David Potter scored a career-high 17 points and hit five of Clemson’s 10 three-pointers as the Tigers used a strong inside-outside game to defeat Liberty 79-39 at the Vines Center Tuesday morning.

The Tigers jumped to early 6-0, and then led 17-1 before the Flames before the Flames hit their first field goal, at the 13:02 mark of the first half, with Potter capping the early run with back-to-back three-pointers.

“My shot just felt good, even in warm-ups," said the senior swing man. "It just felt good from the beginning, so I was just shooting."

In fact, Potter was so hot that he matched his career high for points, 12 [set during his freshman debut], in the first eight minutes of the contest, and Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell said Potter is a player the young Tigers will be depending on for some heavy lifting this season.

"He's one of the guys that we're looking to and he certainly delivered," Purnell said.

The Flames finally broke into the double digits in points in the game when Carter McMasters dunked just past the midway point of the first half, making it a 24-10 game. But the Tigers continued to pull away, and Devin Booker's free throw in the final minute gave the Tigers a 42-19 cushion at the break, Clemson’s point total actually giving it enough points for the win at the half.

The Tigers then opened the second half with three lay-ups, two from Tanner Smith, and never looked back as they rolled to their biggest win on the road in 50 years.

Trevor Booker finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, while Demontez Stitt added nine points and six assists for the Tigers.. Jesse Sanders had seven points to lead Liberty, while Tyler Baker and Johnny Stephene each had six points in the loss.

Liberty head coach Dale Layer made no bones about what he thought was the difference in the rout.

"The rebounding was the difference, their defense was the difference, their outside shooting was the difference," Layer said.. "Any of those things would probably have been good enough on their own, but throw it all together, it's an onslaught."

CLEMSON (2-0)

Potter, David 6-7 0-0 17; Booker, Trevor 5-8 1-2 12; Smith, Tanner 4-9 0-0

9; Young, Andre 3-10 1-2 9; Stitt, Demontez 4-6 0-0 9; Hill, Donte 3-4 0-1

6; Johnson, Noel 2-7 0-0 4; Booker, Devin 1-4 1-2 3; Petrukonis, Karolis 1-1

1-2 3; Narcisse, Bryan 1-5 0-0 2; Jennings, Milton 1-3 0-0 2; Anderson,

Zavier 1-1 0-0 2; Baciu, Catalin 0-0 1-2 1; Grant, Jerai 0-1 0-0 0. Totals

32-66 5-11 79.

LIBERTY (1-2)

SANDERS, Jesse 3-5 1-2 7; STEPHENE, Johnny 2-3 2-3 6; BAKER, Tyler 2-6 1-2

6; PEREZ, Chris 2-6 0-0 5; OHMAN, Kyle 1-9 2-2 4; KONAN, Patrick 1-3 2-3 4;

WEAVER, Bill 1-1 0-0 2; MINAYA, David 1-8 0-0 2; MCMASTERS, Carter 1-2 0-0

2; GORDON, Evan 0-1 1-4 1; BURRUS, Antwan 0-0 0-0 0; ANDERSON, Jeremy 0-2