Clemson To Face Alabama Tuesday

Dec. 31, 2007

Tuesday’s game pitting Clemson and Alabama will be the seventhmeeting on the hardwood for the two schools. The series is tied at3-3, with Clemson holding a 1-0 record in Tuscaloosa. The last timethese two schools met was in the championship game of the 1989 SanJuan Shootout. The Crimson Tide won a defensive contest, 57-48,over the Tigers, who went on to win the ACC regular season titlethat season. Both Clemson and Alabama advanced to the Sweet 16 ofthe NCAA Tournament that season. Clemson was ranked in last week’snational polls for the sixth straight week. It marks the secondstraight season Oliver Purnell’s team has been nationally-rankedfor a period of six weeks or longer. Clemson was nationally rankedfor eight consecutive weeks last season while getting off to anNCAA-best 17-0 start. Clemson held a +29 rebound margin in the winover Samford last Saturday. It was the largest differential for theTigers since the 1988-89 team outrebounded Wagner by 30. Clemsonenters Tuesday’s contest with Alabama having won six of its lastseven games against teams from the Southeastern conference. TheTigers were 4-0 last season versus the SEC, and are 2-1 this yearwith wins over Mississippi State and South Carolina. OliverPurnell’s owns a career 9-4 record versus teams from the SEC asClemson’s head coach. K.C. Rivers recorded a “triple leadership” inthe win over Samford. The Charlotte, NC native led the Tigers with17 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. He shared team-highhonors for both rebounds and assists. Raymond Sykes has made 70percent of his field goal attempts (23-for-33) over Clemson’s lastfive games. Included in his hot shooting streak was an 8-8performance versus Ole Miss. Sykes made 12 consecutive field goalsfrom the end of the DePaul game through the first half of theSamford game. Demontez Stitt ranks fifth in the ACC in free throwshooting. The freshman from Matthews, NC has made 36-for-41 fromthe charity stripe for an accuracy mark of 87.8 percent. He hasmade his last 13 attempts from the free throw line enteringTuesday’s game with Alabama. Cliff Hammonds has 212 careerthree-point goals, and needs just two in Tuesday’s game to tie WillSolomon for second place in school history. Terrell McIntyre(1995-99) is Clemson’s all-time leader with 259 three-point goalsin his career. Hammonds has made at least one three-point basket ineach of Clemson’s last 39 games dating to last year. Hammonds leadsthe ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio with a 3.64 figure. He ranksthird in school history in the category and has 19 assists comparedto only three turnovers in the last four games.