DeVoe Leads Clemson to Second Win in Spain

LA RODA, Spain — Clemson limited C.P. La Roda to one field goal in the first quarter and went on to an 86-63 victory Saturday night.

Clemson improves to 2-0 on its tour of Spain. The Tigers have won six straight international exhibition games.

“I was happy with the effort,” said assistant coach Steve Smith, who took the reigns from head coach Brad Brownell for the game. “We had to travel today. The players tried to do what we asked them to do.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of flow. We committed some fouls, so we had to play more zone. And it is a new zone that we have been working on. That led to some sloppiness.”

Gabe DeVoe led the Tigers with 19 points. He was followed by AJ Oliver with 15, Donte Grantham with 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Eli Thomas with 10 points and 10 rebounds. 

Marcquise Reed handed out eight of Clemson’s 17 assists.

The Tigers shot 42 percent from the field while limiting La Roda to 33 percent.

La Roda’s Antonio Fernandez led all scorers with 21.

Led by Graham and Thomas, the Tigers dominated the glass, 59-36.

Clemson scored the first seven points of the game. After a single free throw La Roda, the Tigers reeled off nine more points to increase their lead to 16-1 with 4:07 left in the quarter. La Roda’s lone field goal of the quarter came at the 1:25 mark. Clemson held a 24-7 at the end of the quarter.

DeVoe scored nine points to lead an 11-0 run to increase the Clemson lead to 39-12 with 2:59 left in the second quarter.

In the final two quarters, La Roda fought back. Clemson played a variety of lineups with mostly newcomers. The Tigers won the third quarter by one point and lost the fourth quarter by four. 

After the game, the Tigers moved on to Valencia.