Clemson holds off Wake Forest for much-needed victory

CLEMSON — Down arguably its top two players in PJ Hall and Hunter Tyson, Clemson desperately needed someone to step up Wednesday night against Wake Forest.

Chase Hunter, Al-Amir Dawes and the rest of the Tigers were ready.

Clemson pulled away for an 80-69 victory over the Demon Deacons at Littlejohn Coliseum to snap a six-game losing streak. The Tigers were led by Hunter, who finished with 21 points on 10 of 12 shooting from the field. Dawes added 19 points and 4 assists as Clemson earned arguably its best win of the season.

“Just happy to see them excited in the locker room after a big win against a good team. We made shots tonight, which is something we haven’t done consistently well. Our guys kept making plays,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “We had to make a lot of plays down the stretch. We haven’t always been able to do that. I just thought our kids fought incredibly hard.”

The Tigers led by only 3 points with 1:27 remaining but ended the game on a 10-2 run to seal the victory. Dawes scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half to help seal the game. The junior was 6-for-6 from the free-throw line in the second half.

“They’ve been trying to stick with it. We don’t have much margin for error, even with PJ. And then obviously playing without he and Hunter tonight was challenging in some ways but a great opportunity for my young guys,” Brownell said. “And I thought they competed really hard. We found a way to win a fun game.”

Speaking of the young guys, Ian Schieffelin and Ben Middlebrooks — two freshmen — started for the Tigers and played well.

Schieffelin finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds while Middlebrooks had 2 rebounds, 2 steals and was plus-8 in 20 minutes.

Wake Forest dropped to 21-8 (11-7) with the loss after the Demon Deacons entered as one of the surprises in the ACC.