Clemson aims to keep their hopes of a run in the NCAA tournament alive this Wednesday when the Tigers travel up to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers. Since playing Pittsburgh last, Clemson has gone on a 4-3 run defeating Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, no. 11 Virginia Tech and Boston College. Pittsburgh, however, is riding a 10 game losing streak coming into Wednesday nights matchup.
Pittsburgh is 12-15 and ranked 15th within the ACC and the Tigers are 16-11 ranked 9th within the ACC.
The two teams previously met back in January, where the Tigers would come out of the matchup with an 82-69 win. Marquise Reed would lead the Tigers with 26 points and Xavier Johnson would lead the Panthers with 30 points. Javan White led the Tigers with 7 rebounds and Xavier Johnson led the Panthers with 4 rebounds and Shelton Mitchell led the Tigers with 5 assists and Xavier Johnson led with 1 assist. Field Goal percentage wise, Clemson had the higher percentage of the two. The Tigers shot at 55.3% compared to the Panthers, who shot at 45.3%. Clemson also had the higher three point percentage, the Tigers three point percentage that night was 51.9% compared to Pitt who shot at 36.4%. The Tigers have had difficulty in the turnover margin this season and this game was no exception, the Tigers had 14 turnovers this game. The Tigers also averaged 30 rebounds this game.
Pittsburgh averages 72.3 points per game, 37.1 rebounds, 12.0 assists and allow their opponents to score on average 68.9 points per game.
Offensively, Pittsburgh relies on Xavier Johnson. The freshman guard averages 16.6 points per game with a field goal percentage of 43.6% and 4.6 assists per game. Peace Ilegomah has the highest field goal percentage on the team of 100.0% but only averages 0.9 points per game.
Defensively, Au’Diese Toney averages 5.9 rebounds per game, Trey McGowens averages 2.0 steals per game and Terrell Brown averages 2.0 blocks per game.
Clemson will be back home Saturday for a 6 p.m. tipoff against no.5 North Carolina.
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