Next Up – Clemson – Yahoo Sports

When the ACC Tournament bracket was finalized, many people probably assumed that we’d see Duke-UNC III on Friday. Well, Clemson had something to say about that.

The Tigers pulled ahead, 25-22 with 7:27 to play in the first half, and never looked back – until UNC rallied late.

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Clemson was up 69-54 with 5:07 to play. The Tar Heels outscored the Tigers 25-11 over the last 4:55. That included 5 threes.

Clemson held on, but barely. Still, they did hold on and will play Duke on Friday. So what to expect?

Well, like Duke, they have a serious injury issue: Carter Welling blew out his knee in Clemson’s first tournament game.

In the Duke-Clemson game in Cameron last month, Welling played 21 minutes and got 12 points and 5 rebounds. Clemson shot 35% overall and 25% on threes.

Brad Brownell has done a really good job of identifying useful guards who are sometimes below the radar, guys Duke doesn’t really look at, and has pretty much gone toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils for years.

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Most of that was against Mike Krzyzewski, of course. Since Jon Scheyer took over, Duke is 2-2 against Clemson. Brownell won the first game at Clemson, 72-64. Scheyer won the second game, at Duke, 72-71. Clemson won last year down there, 77-71, while Duke won this year, 67-54.

Duke is missing Pat Ngongba and Caleb Foster, of course, but still has a height advantage over the Tigers, and that might prove decisive. In Durham, Dame Sarr had a huge night defensively, and Clemson in general struggled shooting:

Moving fast and shooting threes is a useful way to compete against a taller team, but Clemson shot just 25% there (6-24).

They shot better against Wake Forest on Wednesday, shooting 10-22 (45%) on threes and 22-50 (44%) overall. Against a much taller UNC team, the Tigers hit 9-19 (47%) on threes and 27-55 (49%) overall.

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Also notable: Clemson grabbed 17 offensive rebounds against Wake, but just 3 against UNC.

There are a couple of other things to keep in mind for this game….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/next-clemson-130000305.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-13 13:00:00

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