Clemson puts the ACC deep freeze on BC 74-70

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For those who are still not convinced about how good the ACC is, consider this. Boston College has played three league games so far and all three have been VS teams ranked in the Top 25. Five of their first six will be against ranked teams. Such is life in the ACC. Wednesday night was a tale of two halves, with Clemson hanging on in the second to win 74-70 over Boston College.

After the game Clemson Head Coach, Brad Brownell, “the first fifteen minutes we were great”. Numbers would bear him out. The Tigers shot 46% from the field, led the first half for almost eighteen minutes., and kept the Eagles off the offensive boards. BC had zero offensive rebounds in first twenty minutes but was perfect from the free throw line (8-8) on their way to 18-of-20, 90% for the game. Things were not looking good for the home team.

Clemson’s first double-digit lead came off a dunk by Gave DeVoe, 10 points for the night. The score would reach its highest point of 18 on a three-point play from Elijah Thomas 32-14 Tigers. Thomas finished with 16 points and the half would end at 38-23.

Meanwhile, Boston College struggled in that first half, Coach Jim Christian said later “we were not who we are”. BC had problems on the offensive end with turnovers as they had 10 of those. They shot just 40% from the field 10-for 25 and had no flow or rhythm to what they were trying to do. It led to bad possessions which helped the Tigers race out to the big lead at the half.

The second half was the exact opposite as Eagles went on a 20-0 run when they hit seven shots in a row. Jerome Robinson scored 11 of those points on his way to a game-high 28 on 11-18 shooting including 6-9 from deep. Many of Robinson’s makes in the second half were tough shots with a hand and sometimes two hands in his face. It brought BC back to within seven at 49-42 with 12:37 left in the game.

There is a reason why the Tigers are ranked in the top 25 for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Donate Grantham would be at the top of that reason list. A double-double of 23 points and 14 rebounds, which was his fourth of the season. Down the stretch, he knocked down big three-point shots. His second of the half from the right corner gave Clemson a nine-point advantage at 61-52. He would get fouled on the play but missed the FT attempt.

The Eagles would not go away and tied the game at 68 all on two free throws by Key Bowman. 19 points. With a minute left in the game, Boston College had come all the way back from down 19 in the first half. Good teams find different ways to get the job done and Clemson did just that by knocking down their free throws, six of them to escape Conte Forum with a big road win 74-70 over Boston College.