Stumbling Wake Forest falls at Clemson

Clemson spent the first 10 minutes establishing coordinates and the final 30 minutes landing enough direct hits to subdue Wake Forest 71-60 on Saturday in front of 8,134 at Littlejohn Coliseum.

The Tigers, after making only one of their first 15 shots from the floor, found the range in time to score on 15 of their final 17 possessions of the first half. Senior Andre Young delivered the salvo that changed everything, drilling a 3-pointer from the left wing with 10:28 left in the half for Clemson's second field goal of the game.

"It was just good seeing that ball go through the hoop,'' Young said. "It just gives guys a little spark, and the bucket just gets a little bit bigger. So guys started hitting shots.''

The Deacons failed to fully capitalize on the Tigers' stumbling start, allowing Young's basket to slice their lead to 12-7. Clemson took its first lead at 20-19 on a dunk by Devin Booker, assumed the lead for good at 26-25 on a pull-up jumper by Milton Jennings and then finished the half with an 8-2 flourish.

Tanner Smith's 3-pointer with 3.2 seconds remaining provided the Tigers with a 36-29 halftime lead. Another 12-2 surge early in the second half extended the lead to 50-37 and Wake Forest was no closer than 10 over the game's final 131/2 minutes. Clemson improved to 11-9 overall and 3-3 in the ACC. Wake Forest tumbled to 11-10 and 2-5 with its fifth loss in six games.

"It was kind of a game-changer there when (Young) hit that three,'' Tony Chennault of Wake Forest said. "It got him going, and it got the rest of the team going.

"I just thought we went into a scoring drought in the second half. And that can't happen against good teams.''

Young dominated the point-guard matchup, finishing with 19 points, five assists and no turnovers. Chennault, a sophomore who missed 17 games last season with a broken foot, made 1 of 7 shots from the floor and finished with three points, three assists and two turnovers.

Young also had more support than Chennault. Booker delivered 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three blocks; Smith had 13 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists; and Bryan Narcisse had 11 points, four rebounds and two steals.

C.J. Harris led Wake Forest with 19 points and added seven rebounds, and Travis McKie bounced back from a 1-for-13 performance against Florida State to contribute 13 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals.

But the Deacons shot 41 percent from the floor, made only three of 10 3-point attempts and turned the ball over 15 times.

"Turnovers really hurt us,'' coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake Forest said. "To give them 19 points on 15 turnovers — the majority of our turnovers were bad turnovers — coupled with the fact that when they were struggling offensively to start the game we didn't take advantage of that opportunity.

"We had some opportunities around the rim and some open shots and some free throws that we just have to make. And therein lies the story of the game in my mind.''

Ty Walker returned from a concussion that sidelined him for the second half of Wednesday's loss to Florida State. He started and played 26 minutes, contributing eight points, four rebounds and three blocks.

"I feel better,'' Walker said. "No symptoms. So everything's pretty much back to normal.''

Even when they were missing their shots early, the Tigers took care of the ball and played tough defense. The Deacons scored on three of their first four possessions for a 6-0 lead, then came up empty on eight of their next 11.

By the second half, the Tigers had locked down on defense enough to hold the Deacons to 10 of 28 shooting (36 percent). A focus at halftime was to stop the Deacons' backdoor cuts that had hurt the Tigers over the first 20 minutes.

"A couple of times in the first half, we got beat on backdoor cuts,'' Narcisse said. "That was one of the things we talked about in scouting, and we didn't really allow them to do that as much (in the second half).

"Most of their points were around the basket, and coach was saying, 'Make them take tough two's,' and I think that's where we really thrived.''