(Clemson University Athletics Communications)
By Justin Mathis
It was Senior Day at Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday afternoon as Clemson recognized Aamir Simms, Clyde Trapp, and Jonathan Baehre for their accomplishments as part of the basketball program. On this day, however, sophomore guard Al-Amir Dawes provided a spark off of the bench, powering the Tigers to a 77-62 victory over the Pitt Panthers in the regular season finale.
Late in the first half, Pitt put together a surge, forcing a string of Clemson turnovers that turned into drives in the lane and trips to the charity stripe, which saw Clemson’s lead shrink from as many as 16 points down to two at halftime.
Clemson saw their two point lead balloon back out to 16 points over a five minute stretch in the middle of the second half, which featured a trio of triples, one from Nick Honor and two by Hunter Tyson. With less than a minute to go in regulation, Dawes caught a pass and hit a step-back three pointer for the exclamation point.
The Tigers got 45 points off the bench, led by Dawes with a game-high 21 points (7-of-10 shooting), followed by Hunter Tyson with 16 (5-of-6 from the field). Aamir Simms finished the game with 12 points and Clyde Trapp (Lower Richland HS) finished with eight.
This marks the fewest losses in a regular season for Clemson since 1987. Next up for Clemson (16-6 overall, 10-6 ACC) is a trip up to the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday for the ACC Tournament. The official bracket for the tournament will be announced by the conference on Sunday.
Brad Brownell press conference
Final Stats
