Following a dominant win over Charleston Southern in the season opener, the Clemson men’s basketball team continued its strong start on Friday night, routing St. Francis 88-62.
Standout performances by Clemson’s starting guards Jaeden Zackery and Chase Hunter, as well as junior forward Ian Schieffelin, assisted in getting the victory over the opponent. Hunter dropped 13 points while shooting 50% from the field.
Zackery did it all on the court, recording 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals. He showed what he could bring to the team on Friday night: defensive urgency, efficiency and consistency.
“I definitely feel like I’m capable of doing something like this every night, but honestly, I’m going to come in and focus on defense mostly because that’s the best part of my game,” Zackery said. “That’ll kind of help us turn the ball over, get in transition, get offense. And like I said before, we have so many people that can score the ball. I don’t completely focus on that, but if I need to step up my role, I’ll do that.”
Schieffelin, the ACC’s most improved player last season, was busy in the paint, with 16 points, 13 rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes of play.
St. Francis had zero players listed over the height of 6-foot-10 on its official roster heading into this matchup, and head coach Brad Brownell seemed to take that into account. The Tigers dominated in the paint, outscoring the Red Flash 38 to 26.
“I started off slow; I know Viktor (Lakhin) finished way better this game,” Schieffelin said. “You know we kind of made an emphasis at practice of just going through people and finishing tough.”
The Tigers (2-0) clicked on all cylinders throughout the contest, shooting efficiently, hustling on defense and controlling the game’s pace. They shot 58.9% from the field and 44.4% from three-point range, previewing how efficient their offense can be this season.
On the other side of the ball, they forced 16 turnovers and converted those to offense by scoring 25 points off the mistakes by St. Francis.
However, Clemson needs to stay sharp even when up by a good margin in the future, as they played sloppily and allowed unnecessary late-game turnovers. The team finished with 16 turnovers that allowed the Red Flash to stay in the game.
The Tigers will continue their home stint at Littlejohn Coliseum to start the season, facing off against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
