Tigers Suffocate Demon Deacons in 73-62 ACC Victory
Clemson forces 19 Wake Forest turnovers and turns them into 35 points
CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson University men’s basketball got back into the win column with a 73-62 win over Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon in Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Tigers (10-3, 2-0 ACC) forced the Demon Deacons into 19 turnovers and turned those into 35 points to help facilitate its double-digit victory. Jake Heidbreder (Floyds Knobs, Ind./Floyd Central) helped spark the Tigers with 15 points off the bench, including 3-for-4 from 3-point range.
Chase Hunter (Atlanta, Ga./Westlake) led all Clemson scorers with 16 points on an efficient 5-for-9 shooting, including 4-for-7 from three. Jaeden Zackery (Salem, Wis./Westosha Central/Boston College) finished with 12 points, but led the Tigers with six assists and five steals. The five steals tied a career-best for Zackery and the six assists tied a season-high.
In the post, Viktor Lakhin (Anapa, Russia/CSKA-2/Cincinnati) added 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists to tie Zackery. He totaled two blocks and two steals. Ian Schieffelin (Atlanta, Ga./Grayson) totaled 13 points and seven assists.
Clemson trailed 4-0 to start the game, but would gain the lead quickly and never look back against Wake Forest. The Tigers built a 15-point lead in the opening stanza and led by nine at the break.
Wake Forest came as close as three points in the second half, 44-41, but the Tigers engineered a 16-4 run over nearly six and half minutes of action to push the game out of reach. Clemson’s largest lead of the game was 20 at 71-51 with 5:03 on the clock.
Clemson made things difficult offensively for Wake Forest who accrued just five assists on 25 made field goals. The Demon Deacons finished 50.0 percent from the floor, but just 23.1 percent from 3-point range.
Clemson returns to the court on Jan. 1 when it hosts Stanford at 4 p.m. on ACCN.
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Notes: Clemson moves to 10-3 this season … Head Coach Brad Brownell moved to 16-5 against Wake Forest … Coach Brownell won his 442nd game of his career and his 275th while at Clemson … Clemson is fourth in the ACC since 2017-18 with 74 league victories … as a team, Clemson posted 11 steals – the second-most this season … Jake Heidbreder scored a season-high 15 points on 4-of-5 shooting and 3-for-4 from three … Jaeden Zackery tied a season-high with six assists and tied a career-high with five steals … Viktor Lakhin tied a career-high with six assists … Chase Hunter led Clemson with 16 points and is now in sole possession of 16th on the all-time scoring list at Clemson (1,447) … Ian Schieffelin secured seven rebounds and now has 716 for his career (14th all-time).
