Clemson Basketball Holds on to Defeat Cincinnati in Greenville

Clemson Gets to 10-3 Ahead of ACC Play

The Tiger fans gathered in the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville held their collective breaths as Cincy’s Day Day Thomas’s fading 3 pointer bounced away, securing a 68-65 victory for Clemson. This game certainly felt like an easy Sunday afternoon at the park during a dominant first half where the Tigers raced out to an 11-0 lead and eventually built a lead over 20 points combining suffocating defense with some hot shooting from Jestin Porter and Carter Welling. Our STS basketball writers have a group text where we all pondered if the team could put two great halves of basketball together at last. I even stated “thankfully Cincy doesn’t have BYU’s firepower,” but nearly ate those words when Thomas started bombing 3 pointers left and right.

Cincinnati is a strong defensive team and looked much more like what was advertised after the half when they ramped up their full court pressure. The officiating crew was pretty loose with the whistles and allowed a lot of contact from both teams going both ways for the majority of the game. Clemson was also more shorthanded with Zac Foster out for the remainder of the season with his torn ACL, and Butta Johnson only able to give 8 minutes dealing with a groin injury sustained in the Mercer game. Ace Buckner stepped up once again, especially in the second half, making a key 3 pointer as well as winning a loose ball scrap to hammer home a dunk to help stave off the furious Bearcat rally.

RJ Godfrey was having a mostly forgettable day until he became the go-to man in crunch time, finishing tough around the rim and drawing fouls despite dealing with 7’2” Mustapha Thiam inside. Godfrey was unable to complete a 3 point play late but the Tigers took care of the basketball and Dillon Hunter went 4-4 from the line on 1 and 1 free throws to keep Cincy from completing the comeback.

Clemson finished with six guys in double figures, led by Buckner and Welling with 12, Porter’s 11, and Hunter, Godfrey, and Nick Davidson’s 10 points each. The Bearcats were led by Thomas’s 17 points on 5 made 3’s and Thiam’s 15 points.

This was a critical win for Clemson’s NCAA chances, with the UGA win being the best so far and likely to hold good weight as the season unfolds. Clemson avoided stumbling against teams that would dampen the resume, so now it comes down to getting into the top 6 of the ACC. The schedule is very favorable for the Tigers to get off to a very strong start with the hardest portion of the schedule not hitting until February. The ACC is definitely stronger and deeper this year than last year even if there isn’t a team quite as good as last year’s Duke squad. The league is closer to the Big10 than the Mountain West, which was not the case a year ago when the ACC finished with just 4 teams in the NCAA tournament (one of those being a first four participant).

Clemson will travel to take on Syracuse on New Year’s Eve to kick of league play.

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