BC outpaced by Clemson
Drop ninth straight to Tigers
Clemson’s hex over Boston College isn’t confined to the gridiron.
Clemson recorded its ninth straight men’s basketball victory over BC with an 82-64 smackdown on Saturday night at Conte Forum. BC fell to 13-15 overall, 7-10 in the ACC and will host Notre Dame on Wednesday night. Clemson improved to 14-12 and 8-8.
“I wish I could tell you, I just don’t know,” said BC coach Jim Christian of the orange curse. “We didn’t play well and they are playing well and they are in a really good rhythm.
“We needed to play with great effort that I thought we would undoubtedly do on Senior Day. We needed to play with great discipline and I don’t think we did either.”
Clemson shot a strong 68.9% from the floor with seven treys, 32 rebounds and 20 assists. Guard Al-Amir Dawes led five players in double figures with a careerhigh 22 points.
BC shot 37.7% from the floor with 7-of-26 from downtown and 25 rebounds. Freshman guard Jay Heath paced BC with 16 points off the bench.
“A great road win for us and everything is better when you shoot it like that,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell. “I think getting off to great starts in both halves was certainly key and gave our guys a little bit of juice.”
Up by 12 at the break, Clemson put the game out of reach with a 15-5 run in the opening five minutes of the second. Dawes buried two of Clemson’s three trifectas in the stretch, putting the Tigers up 56-34 into the first official’s timeout.
Brownell gave his bench players quality minutes while resting his starters for the upcoming ACC tournament. A step-back jumper by graduate swingman Tevin Mack put the Tigers ahead 68-42 into the third officials’ timeout. Both dumpsters overflowed in garbage time.
“I give them credit, they made a lot of good plays,” said Christian. “They are playing well and we helped them a lot too, it was a combination of both.
“They played great and we obviously helped them play great.”
Christian burnt his first timeout 1:32 into the first half, a telling signal from the bench that events were running horribly amiss. The Tigers opened with consecutive treys and a reverse layup from the baseline by Dawes to go up, 8-0.
After falling behind 10-0 on a pair of John Newman free throws, BC went on a 9-4 spurt. Freshman guard Jay Heath brought the pushback with 3-ball and a transition layup.
“Right from the first play of the game when they got an uncontested three on simple closeout and that set the tone for me for the whole night,” said Christian.
BC grabbed enough defensive boards with a few forced turnovers to keep the score manageable through the midway point. Steffon Mitchell’s hard drive along the baseline cut the Tigers’ lead to 24-18 with 8:31 to play.
BC’s zone collapsed under the weight of uncontested layups and 3-point shots. The Tigers outscored BC 12-3 over a three-minute span to take a 36-21 lead into the fourth officials’ timeout. BC enjoyed a brief surge, but
Tigers’ forward Aamir Simms (12 points) closed the frame with a trey and a putback at the buzzer to give Clemson a 41-29 lead at the break.
No. 3 Kansas 64, No. 1 Baylor 61— Udoka Azubuike and No. 3 Kansas returned the favor in a Big 12 showdown that lived up to the hype.
The Jayhawks share the Big 12 lead again, and could return to the No. 1 spot in the AP poll, as well.
Azubuike had 23 points and a career-high 19 rebounds, ending the Bears’ 23-game winning streak and likely ending the Bears’ fiveweek run as the nation’s No. 1 team.
Kansas (24-3, 13-1 Big 12) has won 12 in a row since its first-ever home loss to Baylor on Jan. 11. Baylor (24-2, 13-1) has never won a Big 12 title. There are four games left in the regular season.
No. 5 Dayton 80, Duquesne 70 — Led by their best player, Obi Toppin, and Jalen Crutcher — who scored all of his 17 points in the second half — Dayton shook off the dust and cruised to a victory over the Dukes, the 16th win in a row for the Flyers.
Trey Landers added 12 points and Crutcher had five assists for the Flyers (25-2, 14-0 Atlantic 10), who have yet to lose in regulation this season.
No. 8 Florida State 67, North Carolina State 61 — M.J. Walker scored all 12 of his points after halftime to help eighthranked Florida State take control in the second half.
Patrick Williams also scored 12 points for the Seminoles, who have won six of seven to stay near the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
The Seminoles (23-4, 13-3) also threw out some zone looks to get the Wolfpack off stride early in the second half.
Devon Daniels scored 18 points to lead N.C. State (1710, 8-8).
No. 11 Louisville 72, North Carolina 55 — Jordan Nwora scored 18 points to lead Louisville.
The Cardinals (23-5, 14-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their second straight game and guaranteed they would stay in first place in the conference ahead of a big Monday night matchup at No. 8 Florida State.
The Tar Heels (10-17, 3-13) lost their seventh straight. They also played shorthanded as starting forward Garrison Brooks missed the game due to an illness and reserve Justin Pierce sat out with a sprained left ankle.
No. 13 Auburn 73, Tennessee 66— The Auburn Tigers had an ugly performance for 25 minutes and an unfortunate incident involving a fan.
The final result was prettier for the 13th-ranked Tigers, who rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to beat Tennessee 73-66 behind Samir Doughty’s 22 points.
The comeback wasn’t the only hot topic after the game.
A student was ejected from the game after directing a derogatory comment toward Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi and will face a disciplinary hearing, an Auburn official said. The fan was heard on TV calling out, “Go back to Uruguay! This is America!”
Auburn stopped a twogame skid. Led by Doughty’s hot streak, the Tigers (23-4, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) scored 18 consecutive points to spark the comeback against the Volunteers (15-12, 7-7).
Jordan Bowden scored a career-high 28 points and six assists and made 3 of 4 3-pointers for the Vols.
Harvard 69, Penn 65 — Noah Kirkwood and Chris Lewis scored 19 points each for Harvard (18-7, 7-3 Ivy League), which has won four in a row. Jordan Dingle had 16 points for the Quakers (1310, 5-5). Devon Goodman added 15 points. AJ Brodeur had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Northeastern 77, Drexel 68 — Jordan Roland scored 25 points for Northeastern.
Shaquille Walters had 16 points for Northeastern (1414, 8-8 Colonial Athletic Association), which broke its five-game road losing streak. Maxime Boursiquot added 10 points and eight rebounds. Bolden Brace also had 10 points.
Camren Wynter had 20 points for the Dragons (1316, 6-10), whose losing streak reached five games.