Hunter's 23 points and Schieffelin's double-double lead Clemson in opener

Clemson is now 12-1 in season openers under Brownell.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Nov 07 22:17:23 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Chase Hunter tied a career-high with 23 points, and Ian Schieffelin posted a double-double with career-highs of 20 points and 14 rebounds as Clemson opened the season with a workmanlike 80-69 victory over The Citadel Monday night in Littlejohn Coliseum.

Hunter was 8-17 from the floor, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Most of that damage came late in the first half. He also delivered five assists and had zero turnovers. Hunter Tyson added 19 points and Brevin Galloway scored 11 in his Clemson debut after transferring from Boston College.

With the win, Clemson leads the all-time series with The Citadel 62-24, including the last 17 in the series dating back to the 1980-81 season.

With a win over The Citadel, Clemson has won 37-out-of-38 games to open a season, which dates back to the 1985-86 season. Head coach Brad Brownell is 12-1 in season openers at Clemson.

The first 10 minutes of the first half were back and forth, with neither side gaining much of an advantage. Ian Schieffelin made a layup at the 11:27 mark that gave the Tigers a 16-15 lead, but the Bulldogs scored the next five points to go ahead 20-16 at the 9:58. Hunter pulled the Tigers to within two on a layup 11 seconds later, and Schieffelin made one 30 seconds later to tie the score at 20-20.

The Bulldogs’ Austin Ash hit a 3-pointer and Madison Durr hit a layup and a free throw to push the lead back to four at 26-22, but Alex Hemenway drained a 3-pointer to bring the Tigers back to within one at 26-25.

The Tigers then closed out the half on a 20-5 run, led by Hunter’s 11 points and eight points from Galloway. With Clemson leading 33-26, Hunter hit two 3-pointers and Galloway hit one to push the lead to 42-29, and Hunter hit another long-range jumper with one second left in the half to give Clemson the 45-31 lead at the half.

Clemson pushed the lead to 17 at 54-37 coming out of the break, but The Citadel refused to go away as Colby McAllister hit back-to-back three-pointers to make it 54-43 with just under 16 minutes to play.

Hunter Tyson hit one of two free throws, but the Bulldogs scored the next five points to pull within seven at 55-48.

The Tigers were able to keep a working margin of seven to 10 points for the rest of the half, but never put the Bulldogs away. Hemenway hit a 3-pointer that put the Tigers up by 12 at 78-66 with around two minutes remaining, but the Bulldogs answered with a 3-pointer on the other end to make it 78-69. Following a timeout, Hunter delivered a pass to Schieffelin, who dunked it for the final points of the night and sent the Tigers to the win.

Clemson returns to action Friday night, traveling to Columbia to take on arch-rival South Carolina at 7 pm in Colonial Life Arena.