Clemson and USC wrapped up the football regular season this past Saturday as the Tigers claimed the state championship with a 16-7 win over the Gamecocks. Now the two schools’ basketball teams can assume the spotlight. Tonight, both the Carolina and Clemson men’s basketball teams have tough challenges for the opening night of the first ACC/SEC Men’s Basketball Challenge.
In Columbia, the Gamecocks will entertain Notre Dame at 7pm. This is the first meeting between the programs since 1984, as USC looks to run its record to 6-0 on the season. Carolina has not played since defeating Grand Canyon University 75-68 on November 19th to win the Arizona Tipoff. The 5-0 start is the best for the program since USC opened the 2016-17 season 8-0 en route to an appearance in the NCAA “Final Four.” Notre Dame, which is 3-2 on the year, will be appearing in its first true road game and comes in riding a two-game winning streak.
At 9:30 tonight, Clemson will put its 5-0 record on the line at Alabama. The Tigers are coming off a 90-69 thumping of Alcorn State back on Friday. PJ Hall scored a career-high 29 points to go along with four assists and nine rebounds in the win. And Hall wasn’t the only one getting other players involved. As a team, the Tigers dished out a season-high 26 assists—the most by a Tiger team since last year against Syracuse, in which they handed out 28. Alabama is 5-1 thus far, with a loss to Ohio State (92-81) in the Emerald Coast Classic last weekend.
Winning tonight will not be easy for Clemson, as Alabama has won 19 straight games at Coleman Coliseum, which ranks as the second-longest home winning streak in Division I. The Crimson Tide have won those games by an average of 27 points per contest.
*Correction*: The women’s version of the ACC/SEC Challenge starts Wednesday overall and Thursday for our local teams. South Carolina travels to North Carolina for a 7pm tip with Clemson visiting Auburn at 9pm.
Elsewhere tonight:
Bob Jones is at Winthrop (6:30pm)
Charleston Southern travels to The Citadel (7pm)
and Furman hosts SC State (7pm)