CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson used a big win at No. 23 Alabama in last year’s SEC/ACC Challenge to springboard a run to the Elite Eight.
Tigers coach Brad Brownell hopes his team’s 70-66 victory over No. 4 Kentucky in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Tuesday night can point them in that same direction this year.
Clemson held the high-scoring Wildcats to 30 points fewer than their season average of 96.7 points a game coming in.
“It just shows we can still do it,” said Chase Hunter, a sixth-year guard who led the Tigers in scoring during their NCAA run, which included wins over Baylor and Arizona before missing the Final Four with a loss to the Crimson Tide.
“I think maybe people kind of downed us this year, we didn’t have this or that,” Hunter said. “But we’re a team that fights, and we showed that today. We can compete with anybody.”
Clemson showed that again with its fourth consecutive win over a top-five opponent in the AP poll as an unranked team, according to OptaSTATS. According to the post, no other unranked team has accomplished such a streak over top-five opponents since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in the 1989-90 season.
The Tigers certainly competed against previous unbeaten Kentucky (7-1), rallying in the second half to move in front and hold on after the Wildcats cut the lead to 68-66 in the final seconds.
Ian Schieffelin had 11 points and a career-high 20 rebounds. It was the first Clemson player with 20 boards since Harold Jamison did it against Florida State in 1999.
Brownell, in his 15th year with the Tigers, had plenty of roster change from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. Top scorers P.J. Hall and Joseph Girard III are gone and expected starter R.J. Godfrey decided to transfer to Georgia.
So Brownell brought in Viktor Lakhin from Cincinnati, Jaeden Zackery from Boston College and Myles Foster from Illinois State. All three had an impact against Kentucky.
Zackery had two of the team’s eight 3-pointers and four of their six steals. Lakhin had four of Clemson’s nine blocks to go along with six rebounds. Foster had seven points and four rebounds in nine minutes off the bench.
“I think the problem is if we don’t have that kind of effort and toughness, it’s not going to be easy for us since we’re not as talented offensively as some of the teams that we could play,” Brownell said. “Our team understands that and accepts that.”
The SEC won nine of the 10 games so far this week in the inter-conference matchup. Clemson was the lone ACC winner.
When it was over, fans swarmed the court at Littlejohn Coliseum to celebrate the team’s first win over Kentucky since 1996. Those Tigers, coached by Rick Barnes, made the NCAA Tournament, too.
Hunter believes his team will continue playing with the same intensity as it strives to return to the postseason.
“A lot of guys on this team that can defend, really guard and just compete out there,” he said. “When we’re on, it’s going to help us and when we’re off (offensively), it’s something that’s really going to help us.”
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