No. 20 Tigers Downed by Seminoles
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — No. 20 Clemson was unable to pull off a season sweep of Florida State. The Tigers defeated the Seminoles 77-67 at Littlejohn Coliseum last month, but FSU beat Clemson 80-61 at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center on Saturday.
Clemson (9-4, 3-4) shot 30.4 percent from the floor, and Florida State (9-2, 5-1) tallied a field goal percentage of 48.3 while knocking down 12 3-pointers. The Tigers were an impressive 22-for-26 on free throw attempts. They also grabbed 32 rebounds and notched 25 bench points. John Newman III led Clemson in scoring with 12 points to go along with his four rebounds. Chase Hunter shot 4-of-7 from the field and chipped in nine points. FSU’s Balsa Koprivica recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards.
An Aamir Simms jumper marked the game’s first basket, putting the Tigers up 2-0 in the opening minute of action. With Florida State ahead, Al-Amir Dawes knocked down a three-ball to pull Clemson within two at the 15:29 mark of the first half. The ‘Noles proceeded to gain breathing room after that and went on to lead 42-24 at halftime. In the final 6:51 of the game, Clemson went on a 23-7 run, including an 11-0 run in the last 2:13 of play, but FSU came away with an 80-61 victory.
Next up for the Tigers is a contest back home in Clemson, S.C., versus the Boston College Eagles (3-10, 1-6). The matchup at Littlejohn will take place at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27, and air on a regional sports network (RSN).
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Head Coach Brad Brownell’s Postgame Quotes
Opening statement:
“Florida State is a hard team to beat. When you’re shooting as poorly as we did, it’s impossible for us. I actually think we got a lot of good looks in this game. You need to be ready to knock shots down, though, but we couldn’t make one, and that’s demoralizing.”
On the keys to the game:
“Our team needs to regroup. We need to get our confidence back. This game was different from the Georgia Tech game, when we turned it over a lot. We turned it over only 12 times and made 22 free throws, but consistently shooting and missing shots puts a lot of pressure on your defense. We were playing uphill the whole game.”
