Hunter Tyson and Clyde Trapp came up huge to help Clemson (11-5, 5-5 ACC) get a much needed win over North Carolina (11-6, 6-4 ACC) in LittleJohn Coliseum on Tuesday night.
This was a game that seemed to be the tale of two teams. In the first half the Tigers turned the Tarheels over 10 times and scored 10 points off of them. They also out rebounded the best rebounding team in the nation. In that half Clemson looked like the team fans got accustomed to watching before the break last month and it allowed them to take a 33-21 lead to halftime.
The Tigers came out in the second half though and looked like the team post break that couldn’t hit shots at times but also had breakdowns on the defensive side. At one point North Carolina went on an 11-2 run that helped them get to within four points before Clemson righted the ship, pulled back out to a double digit lead, and won 63-50.
Tyson led the team with 16 points, four rebounds, and one assist while Trapp had 14 points, nine rebounds, and one assist. Aamir Simms rounded out the Tigers double digit scorers with 10 points, six rebounds, and six assists.
Clemson improved to 7-0 when leading at the half this season but even more impressive was the fact that they held the Tarheels to only 50 points. The Tigers again shot 40.4% from field and 33.3% from behind the three point line but the biggest difference in this game was they only turned the ball over seven times in the game while North Carolina turned it over 17 times.
