The Clemson men’s basketball team (1-0) will travel to Asheville, North Carolina, to face the University of Alabama at Birmingham Blazers (0-1) at Harrah’s Cherokee Center in the Asheville Championship this Friday at 10:30 p.m.
After the Tigers’ 78-56 win over Winthrop in the season opener, the team will look to start a solid undefeated streak when they take on the Blazers this Friday.
The game marks the first of two in the Asheville Championship for head coach Brad Brownell and his team, as the Tigers and the Blazers will face off on one side of the bracket while the Davidson Wildcats and the Maryland Terrapins are on the opposite side and will face each other Friday night as well.
If Clemson wins, they will face the winner of that contest in the championship. If the Tigers lose, they will play the loser of Maryland and Davidson to determine what place they finish in the four-team tournament.
The Tigers will look to build off their win on Monday night, when a dominant defensive performance, with some help from PJ Hall and Ian Schieffelin on the offensive side, led to a smooth victory over the Eagles.
Brownell spoke about the defense and was impressed with how his team was resilient and defended shots throughout the game.
“We really wanted to limit their threes, and I think we did a nice job there,” Brownell said after Monday night’s win. “Defensive rebounding was good, turned them over a bit. I thought we played well defensively, and as the game wore on, we got better offensively.”
In the opener, Hall was the primary scoring option, as he had 20 points and five rebounds. The team will also hope to get transfer guard Joe Girard III fired up, as he had only had three points in Monday’s win.
Although Girard shot just 1 for 5, Brownell believes that his shots will eventually start to fall in upcoming games, and still thought that the fifth-year guard played a great game.
“I was pleased with his performance,” the Clemson head coach said. “I would love to see him make another shot or two. He just made the right basketball play, which is what you want.”
The team should not count out its opponent, however, as the Blazers have the talent for an NCAA Tournament team this season. Despite missing out last season, UAB went all the way to the final of the NIT Tournament, losing to North Texas to end its season in March. The team had a heartbreaking start to the season, losing to Bradley in overtime in its first matchup, and the Blazers are hungry to get in the win column against Clemson this weekend.
The Blazers were led by senior Javian Davis in the loss, who put up 20 points and 15 rebounds — a monster performance on the glass. In the backcourt, guard Eric Gaines should be another player that Brownell has his eye on, with the junior adding 16 points, four rebounds and two assists to the scoresheet. If the Tigers are able to contain these two standouts from their last game, the team could have a great chance of playing in thechampionship game later this week.
