The Clemson football team had Tiger fans chewing on their collective nails all afternoon along the St. John’s River in Jacksonville before Dabo Swinney’s bunch pulled out a 38-35 come-from-behind win over Kentucky at the Gator Bowl on Friday afternoon. Just a few hours later, the 18th-ranked men’s basketball team made it much easier on the Tiger faithful at Littlejohn Coliseum. Joe Girard scored a game-high 24 points as the Tigers barely worked up a sweat in dispatching Radford 93-58 on Friday night to run their record to 11-1 on the season. The victory was also the 600th triumph for Clemson basketball inside of Littlejohn Coliseum.
The Tigers wasted little time reminding their visitors from the Big South that they were no match for Clemson’s inside-out game. Girard scored 17 of his 24 points in the opening twenty minutes, knocking down a trio of Clemson’s seven three-point field goals in the first half. On the interior, PJ Hall tossed in 12 points, while Ian Schieffelin grabbed ten boards as the Tigers muscled Radford off the glass to the tune of a 23-11 rebounding advantage.
And if not for the heroics of Kenyon Giles, it could have been much worse for the Highlanders in the early going. Giles, a Big South Conference All-Freshman selection last year, scored seventeen first-half points to try and keep his team close.
The second half was much of the same as the Tigers put it on cruise control, outscoring Radford 44-35 in the final frame. The Tigers did so with incredible shooting in the second half, going 19-of-27 (70%) from the floor. However, Clemson did turn the basketball over ten times to finish with 13 turnovers for the game.
Girard, who hit four threes in the game, moved into 5th place on the ACC’s all-time three-pointer list with his 335th make from long distance. Hall finished with 17 points, while Chase Hunter tallied sixteen.
Clemson returns to ACC play on January 3rd at Miami. The Tigers are 1-0 in the league after defeating Pittsburgh 79-70 back on December 3rd. Tipoff against the Hurricanes is set for 8 p.m. on ESPN.