Nick Honor scored 17 points and host Clemson snapped a two-game losing streak in impressive fashion on Friday, cruising past in-state opponent Charleston Southern 91-59.
Honor made 6 of 10 shots from the floor, including a 3-of-5 touch from 3-point range to pace the Tigers, who shot 41.4 percent (12 of 29) from beyond the arc as a team.
Clemson (5-2), which was picked to finish 11th in the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason poll, was coming off consecutive losses to St. Bonaventure and West Virginia in the Shriners Childrens Charleston Classic last week, but took control early against the outmanned Buccaneers.
Charleston Southern (2-4) of the Big South Conference wrapped up a challenging early-season schedule that saw the Bucs go 0-4 against Ole Miss, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Clemson.
The Bucs led 15-14 on a Tahlik Chavez 3-pointer with 9:07 left in the opening half, but Clemson’s Alex Hemenway responded with a 3-pointer of his own 16 seconds later to give Clemson the lead for good, 17-15, and spark a 21-5 scoring run by the Tigers.
Clemson led by 13 at halftime, 37-24, and the Tigers’ advantage swelled to 31 midway through the second half.
Al-Amir Dawes added 16 points for Clemson on 6-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range. Naz Bohannon and PJ Hall added 10 points apiece for the Tigers, who shot 48.6 percent from the floor.
Chavez, a transfer from Iona, paced Charleston Southern with 14 points and made 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Kalib Clinton added 11 points for the Bucs, who shot 29.5 percent from the floor, but did make all 15 of their free-throw attempts.
Clemson returns to action on Tuesday, playing at Rutgers in the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge, while Charleston Southern plays at Kennesaw State on Sunday.
–Field Level Media
