Clemson Knocks Off Pitt 77-62 On Senior Day

CLEMSON- It was Senior Day in Littlejohn Coliseum and Brad Brownell's Tigers were plenty energized, starting Saturday's regular season finale against Pitt on a 29-13 run.

Honoring our seniors 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 #ClemsonGRIT pic.twitter.com/EvvpFDZzxF
— Clemson Basketball (@ClemsonMBB) March 6, 2021

The Panthers would spend the rest of the first half chipping away at the lead, pulling to within 38-36 at the half. Clemson would then begin the second half on a 5-0 run and never look back on their way to a 77-62 win. The Tigers never trailed in the game.

"Terrific regular season," Brownell said. "Today was a good, good performance by our team."

Sophomore guard Al-Amir Dawes paced the Tigers with a game-high 21 points. Seniors Aamir Simms and Clyde Trapp added 12 and 8 points respectively in the final home game of their careers.

"Good for our seniors to play well," Brownell said. "I mean Aamir got in a little bit of foul trouble so it was a little bit harder to maybe get in as much rhythm as he would have liked. But you're always nervous a little bit on a day like today that, you know, seniors aren't gonna play as well and have a lot on their minds, but this was a good performance."

On the day the Tigers shot 56% from the floor, 48% from three, and 78% from the free throw line.

"Shot the ball extremely well, which is helpful for us," Brownell said. "We don't do that all the time. We have shot it better lately, so that's good. But again, just really proud of our team for what we were able to accomplish this year."

Clemson finishes the regular season 16-6 overall and 10-6 in the ACC. The Tigers will now head to Greensboro for the ACC Tournament as either the five or six seed and are almost assuredly guaranteed a spot in this year's NCAA Tournament.

"It's a little unfortunate we're gonna miss out on some bye opportunities, maybe, you know, because of the different number of games," Brownell said. "It would have been interesting to see if we all could have played 20, what it would have been, what it would have looked like if this team had nine more games and played a traditional season."

Key Play: With Pitt having pulled to within 10, Hunter Tyson hit a layup off an assist from Simms to extend the lead back to 74-62, ending any hope Pitt had of coming back.

Player of the Game: Dawes shot lights-out on the afternoon, going 7-10 from the field and 5-8 from beyond the arc. He also had 3 rebounds and 3 assists.

"I figured, I'm just gonna get on a good roll and just keep shooting and keep shooting," Dawes said.

Stat of the Game: The Clemson bench scored 45 points in the game.

Injury Report: Alex Hemenway looked to suffer what looked like a broken nose. However, after the game, Brownell still had not confirmed that was the case.

"I think there's a chance he broke his nose," Brownell said. "So, yeah, it's not good. This is a terrible time for that to happen it's, you know, we'll see what happens. I don't have any information now definitive, but it looks to be like that's what happened."

Up Next: ACC Basketball Tournament: March 9-13 Greensboro, N.C.

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