Clemson Locks Down and Rolls Past Georgia Tech

A road ACC win was a notch Clemson had yet to put on its belt this season, but the Tigers emphatically rectified that with a 65-42 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta that completed a sweep of their two regular-season games vs. the Yellow Jackets.

The Tigers dominated on both ends of the court for the majority of the first half, amassing a 29-12 lead on a David Skara three-pointer with 5:30 remaining. The Yellow Jackets closed the half strong and ripped off a 12-4 run to cut the margin to 9 at the break.

Clemson stretched the lead to 14 early in the second half, but a 6-0 Georgia Tech spurt to cut the deficit back to single digits prompted a Brad Brownell timeout with 12:10 left to play. The regrouping proved to be just what the Tigers needed, as they put together a subsequent 6-0 run of their own and outscored the Jackets 24-9 over the game’s final 12 minutes.

Marcquise Reed paced Clemson with 19 points, while Skara and Aamir Simms chipped in 13 apiece. Skara led the Tigers with 8 rebounds and also shut down Georgia Tech leading scorer Jose Alvarado, holding him to just three points on 1-10 shooting and setting the tone for an excellent defensive performance by Clemson. The Yellow Jackets shot just 30 percent from the field as a team.

After starting its brutal opening stretch of the ACC schedule 1-5, the Tigers have won three straight games and will face No. 11 Virginia Tech in Littlejohn on Saturday with a chance to reach .500 in ACC play (and potentially re-enter bracketology conversations).