CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson women’s basketball team used a 19-1 run spanning halftime to come back from a 10-point deficit in defeating North Florida (2-5), 48-44, in Littlejohn Coliseum on Sunday. The victory is Clemson’s third in a row under first-year head coach Audra Smith, who led the Tigers (4-3) to yet another defensive milestone in just her seventh game. Clemson has held two consecutive opponents to 44 or fewer points (held Radford to 39 on Wednesday) for the first time since Dec. 11 and Dec. 17, 1999. The 83 points conceded over the last two games is the fewest since 2008, when Clemson held Presbyterian College to 35 and South Carolina to 45 in consecutive outings, a total of 80 points. Junior Charmaine Tay had a game-high 15 points, going 6-10 from the floor, while graduate Chancie Dunn added 13 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Dunn also went 6-10 from the floor, and had entered the game tied for 10th in the ACC in shooting percentage at .561. A hot-shooting first half saw the Ospreys bury six three-pointers on 11 attempts (.545), and shoot .440 overall, en route to taking a lead as large as 30-20. Tay hit a three-pointer just before the half that narrowed the gap to 30-23 at the break. The Tiger defense clamped down, holding the Ospreys without a field goal for nearly eight minutes out of the locker room. By the time UNF ended their drought with 12:36 to play, Clemson had built at 39-31 lead. In all, the Ospreys went 0-9 form behind the arc in the second half, and were just 6-29 (.207) overall in the frame. After Raneisha Lamar hit a layup to cut the Clemson lead to two with 2:30 to play, Dunn had an answer in the form of a running left-handed layup to give the Tigers a 44-40 lead with 2:02 to play. After a defensive stop, Pettaway would hit two free throws to give the Tigers a 48-42 lead. Clemson overcame three missed free throws and a turnover in the final 45 seconds to hold on for the win. Clemson improved to 1-0 all-time against North Florida in women’s basketball. The Tigers will be back in action on Thursday at UNC Greensboro, before breaking for finals. Player of the Game: Chancie Dunn – Dunn hit 6-10 from the floor for 13 points, and added three assists, two steals, and two rebounds in 35 minutes. Stat of the Game: 0-9 – After allowing the Ospreys to hit 6-11 from behind the arc in the first half, Clemson held UNF to a 0-9 mark in the second half Player Notes:
Team Notes:
Head Coach Audra Smith Quotes: On halftime adjustments: “I told the team that it’s about them. The scouting report went out the window. It’s about heart, passion, and desire. I said, ‘I’m sick of you guys starting out the game on a slow note and sitting back and waiting to see what the opposition is going to do. You can’t let people come into your house and do whatever they want to do. “The bottom line was we had given up six three’s that were uncontested, so we had to get out and play somebody. We wanted to make North Florida play a little faster, so we went out in man and denied the passing lanes , Chelsea did an awesome job of getting us up the floor, and we did a good job of digging out of it.” On what worked offensively in the second half: “We have this zone offensive play that we run, and usually its for people like Chancie and Charmaine, because they can get in there and survey and shoot that little high post jumper and attack the basket. Chancie kept getting layup after layup so we said we were going to ride that horse until it breaks. So, we kept doing it. She (Chancie) did a phenomenal job. I’m really excited about Charmaine and Chancie and how they are coming on I’ve said it before–those guys have to be able to score for us. “They take a lot of pressure off of people like Dixon and Pettaway and as we go along and get all four of those kids scoring together on a consistent basis we will be better offensively. Right now, what we are doing is really stressing defense. We held those guys scoreless for a long, long time. In that span, we didn’t score much, but they didn’t either. If we have to make it a sludge match and drag it out and play tough defense, then that is what we are doing to do.”
December 10, 2024
