Off the strength of a huge run midway through the second half, Clemson survived a scare from Miami (Ohio), winning 89-76 Tuesday to remain undefeated at home.
Miami (5-4) held a 57-49 lead with 10:46 remaining, but Clemson (7-4) scored the next 12 points to take a lead it never gave up.
Clemson used a balanced scoring attack, with six players reaching double figures. Alex Hemenway led the way with 17 points, including going a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range. David Collins had 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
Al-Amir Dawes, Hunter Tyson and PJ Hall each scored 13 points, closely followed by Naz Bohannon’s 10.
Dae Dae Grant led the Redhawks in offensive production with 20 points and four assists.
The 12-0 run for Clemson was the turning point of the game. The Tigers finally pulled ahead on a layup by Tyson with 7:52 remaining, and Miami could not stop the bleeding from there.
Clemson turned up the pressure on defense and held the Redhawks without a made field goal for over five minutes, while the offense finally found some consistent scoring to put the game away. The run ballooned all the way out to a 23-4 spurt when Collins drained a 3-pointer that made it 72-61 Clemson with 5:57 left in the game.
The Tigers ended the game by making 10 of their final 11 shots from the floor and made 16 of 18 (88.9 percent) from the free throw line on the night. Their ball movement was one of the keys to success on offense with 21 assists on 30 made field goals.
Tyson tied Collins for the game high in the rebounding department with eight. Collins’ six assists also led all players.
It was Clemson’s second straight win after losing four over a five-game stretch.
–Field Level Media