Clemson Basketball opens season with 88-38 win over New Hampshire
CLEMSON — Major roster turnover brought a major challenge for Clemson fans who got their first look at the 2025-26 basketball team Monday night.
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Putting names with numbers is hard when the only familiar faces are Dillon Hunter and RJ Godfrey.
But this first impression was a good one, as a roster full of newcomers showed plenty of variety and upside in an 88-38 trouncing of a bad New Hampshire team at LIttlejohn Coliseum.
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Clemson won 74 games over the previous three seasons, 27 of them last year when the Tigers went 18-2 in the ACC before an agonizing one-and-done in the NCAA Tournament.
Brad Brownell opens his 16th season here with enough talent to keep this team formidable, and his first and second five have been so competitive in practice that it brings frequent rotations and a faster, more frenetic style of basketball than what fans have been used to in recent years.
This group still needs to be battle tested, but they passed their first test.
Ace Buckner is not a familiar face but he has a familiar name (son of Clemson basketball icon Greg) and the No. 21 jersey his dad wore.
The redshirt freshman didn’t start the opener, but he might’ve made a case for the starting five from here with 18 points in 20 minutes.
Buckner went 6-for-7 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line in his collegiate debut and led four players in double figures.
Utah transfer Jake Wahlin scored 11 in 17 minutes.
Nevada transfer Nick Davidson had 10 while pulling down five rebounds in 20 minutes.
Utah Valley transfer Carter Welling had 10 points in 15 minutes.
Godfrey and Hunter scored 9 and 7 points, respectively.
Buckner scored 14 of his points after halftime.
Clemson shot 51 percent from the field and held New Hampshire to 25 percent. The Wildcats attempted 60 shots and missed 45 and were 4-of-27 from 3.
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Clemson raced to a 16-4 lead, and the margin was 43-16 at the half with nine different players scoring over the first 20 minutes. Hunter and Godfrey led the Tigers with seven points apiece going into halftime.
Clemson amassed 43 bench points for the game and had just six turnovers to 13 assists.
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Brownell’s team was 30-of-41 from the free-throw line.
Next up for the Tigers is a visit from Gardner-Webb on Friday night at 7.
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