Men’s Basketball Takes On Cincinnati In Puerto Rico

Dec. 21, 2000

Complete Release in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader

Today’s game is just the third meeting between the Tigers and Bearcats. Cincinnait is perfect in the previous two meetings against Clemson, the last of which was played in 1971 in Cincinnati. The Bearcats won that matchup 93-64. The first ever meeting between the schools was in1927, also in Cincinnati. That contest was decided 42- 16.

Clemson vs. Cincinnati Thursday, Dec. 21, 2000 4:00 PM (EST)

Puerto Rico Holiday Classic, Dec. 20-22, 2000 Eugene Guerra Sports Complex (2,500)

Bayamon, PR TV: None Radio: Clemson Tiger Network Play By Play: Dave McDaniel * Color: Todd Lamb

QUICK FACTS

• Senior guard Will Solomon scored 24 points in Wednesday’s win over Florida Atlantic in the first round of the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic. Solomon did not score his first points of the game until 4:26 remaining in the first half. He scored the first 21 of his 24 total points in 12:59. It was the 19th 20-point game of his career.
• Solomon needs only six points to reach the 1,000 point plateau for his career. He would become the 14th Clemson player to reach 1,000 points during his junior season and the 26th overall Tiger player to top the mark.
• Senior Adam Allenspach has posted double-doubles now in four consecutive games thanks to a 13-point, 13-rebound performance vs. Florida Atlantic. He had 17 points and 12 re-bounds vs. Wofford last Saturday after getting 15p, 15r at South Carolina (Dec. 9) and 20p, 10r vs. Winthrop (Dec. 5). The last Tiger to post at least four straight double-doubles was Sharone Wright, who had a string of five in a row his sophomore season in 1992-93.
• Freshman guard Tony Stockman was named the ACC Rookie of the Week for his perfor-mance in last Saturday’s 78-74 win over Wofford. The Medina, OH native scored 23 points with three assists and three steals in his first collegiate start for a suspended Will Solomon. It marked the most points by a fresh-man since Terrell McIntyre scored 29 points in a home win over Florida State on Feb. 17, 1996. Stockman is third on the team averaging 12.6 points per game. Stockman was co-Mr. Bas-ketball in the state of Ohio last year as a senior.
• Cincinnati is ranked 20th by USA Today/ESPN and 22nd by AP in this week’s polls. The Bearcats are 6-2 after beating Youngstown State 74-65 Wednesday in their opening game. Cincinnati also has wins over Boise State, Marshall, Dayton, Oakland and UNLV with losses to Notre Dame and Xavier. This is the 100th season of Cincinnati basketball.
• This is the third meeting between Clemson and Cincinnati. The Tigers are 0-2 against the Bearcats, after losing 42-16 in 1927 and 93-64 in 1971. Both games were at Cincinnati.
• The winner of the Clemson/Cincinnati game will play the winner of the Alabama/Washington game at 6:30 PM on Friday. The losers of the two games will meet at 4:00 PM on Friday.

About the Bearcats Cincinnati is 6-2 on the season and is ranked 20th by the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll and is ranked 22nd by the Associated Press poll.The Bearcats won their opening game of the Puerto Rico Classic Wednesday with a 74-65 decision over Youngstown State.

Cincinnati opened the season with home wins over Boise State (73-61) and Marshall (79-75) before losing to Notre Dame, 51-69, in the John Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis, IN. The Bearcats then won at Dayton (82-75) and at home vs. Oakland (97-58) before falling to cross-town rival Xavier, 67-69, last Thursday. Cincin-nati entered the tournament with a win after beat-ing UNLV, 90-72, in Las Vegas Saturday night.

Against Ranked Opponents Cincinnati will be the second ranked opponent for the Tigers this season. Clemson is 0-1 against ranked opponents after falling to a 10th-ranked Seton Hall team at home on Nov. 21. The Pi-rates handed the Tigers a 79-78 setback.

Including Seton Hall (ranked #8 in this week’s AP poll), this season Clemson will play a total of seven opponents ranked in this week’s polls (#1 Duke, #6 Wake Forest, #14 Virginia, #15 North Carolina, #20 Maryland and #22 Cincinnati). Clemson has a chance to face an eighth ranked opponent should it meet Alabama in the final or consolation final of the Puerto Rico Classic. Geor-gia Tech is receiving votes in this week’s polls.

In the Opener Will Solomon scored 24 points, includind 21 in about an 13-minute span to lift Clemson to a 94-81 victory over Florida Atlantic in the opening game of the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic Wednesday in Bayamon, PR.

Solomon was 7 of 18 from the field, including 4 of 12 from three-point range, and made 6 of 7 from the free throw line. Solomon did not make his first basket in the game until the 4:26 mark in the first half. He scored the first 21 of his 24 points in a 12:59 span.

Adam Allenspach posted yet another double-double against the Owls. He tallied 13 points and 13 rebounds for his fourth consecutive double-double. The last player to do that is Sharone Wright, who recorded five double-doubles his sophomore year in 1992-93.

In all four Tigers scored in double figures to give Clemson its highest offensive output in head coach Larry Shyatt’s three years. The previous high was 92 points against Georgia Tech on Feb. 28, 1999. In addition to Solomon and Allenspach, Pasha Bains scored 20 points (his second 20- point game this season) and Ed Scott added 13 points.

Florida Atlantic tied the game at 31, but Clemson rallied to outscore the Owls 16-9 in the remaining minutes of the first half to take 47-40 lead at the half. FAU pulled within four points early in the second half before stretching its lead to 21 points. A late rally pulled Florida Atlantic within 13 points, the final margin.

Six Points Away from 1,000 Clemson guard Will Solomon is closing in on the 1,000-point mark for his career. After scoring 24 vs. Florida Atlantic, Solomon now has 994 points for his career entering the Cincinnati game and thus needs just six points to reach 1,000. Solomon will become just the 14th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark in his junior season. The last to do it were Greg Buckner and Terrell McIntyre. He will become the 26th 1,000-point scorer in Clemson history when it reaches that mark.

Allenspach Records Fourth Double-Double Senior Adam Allenspach scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds vs. Wofford last Saturday. It was his third straight double-double. He had 15 points and15 rebounds at South Carolina and 20 points and 10 reboundsvs. Winthrop. The last Tiger to post four consecutive double-doubles was Sharone Wright, who last did it his sophomore year in 1992-93.Next on the list is Dale Davis, who had double-doubles six times in a row his senior year in 1990- 91.

Allenspach is clearly playing his best basketball of his Clemson career right now. Should he play in every game this sea-son, he would rank in the top five in Clemson history. Allenspach ranks second on the Clemson team in scor-ing with a 13.0 aver-age (behind Solomon) and is first in rebound-ing with a 9.8 figure. He is shooting 54.3 percent from the field and had been shoot-ing 77.8 percent from the foul line until he went 1 for 8 from the line Wednesday vs. Florida Atlantic. He made 74 percent from the line last year, best by a Clemson center since the 1956-57 season.

Bains Hits 20 For Second Time Pasha Bains scored 20 points agasint Florida Atlantic on Wednesday. It was the second time this season the sophomore transfer from Wyo-ming connected for 20 points. He also had 20 points in the season opener vs. Hartford. Against the the Hawks, Bains was 7 of 12 from the field, inlcuding 6 of 9 from beyond the three-point arc. Against Florida Atlantic, he was 7 of 15 and was 3 of 8 on three-point tries. He also equaled a career best assist mark with five dishes. He previously had five assists last year against Furman.

Last Time In Puerto Rico Clemson made its last trip to Puerto Rico in 1996 for the San Juan Thanksgiving Shootout. The Tigers opened the tournament with a 78-71 win over Delaware thanks to the shooting of Merl Code who finished with 19 points after scoring 13 in the second half. Harold Jamison added 15 points with eight rebounds. The Tigers shot 52.5 percent for the game and had a 33-29 rebound advantage, including a 16-9 edge on the offen-sive glass.

In the Tigers’ second game, Clemson needed the heroics of Terrell McIntyre in the final sec-onds to get past Missouri. He connected for a three-point shot (21 feet, left side) with only four seconds to play to give Clemson a 47-45 victory. McIntyre was 2 of 10 from the field before that game-winning shot. Code again led Clemson on the scoreboard with 13 points. The win propelled the Tigers into the tourna-ment finale vs. Minnesota, a rematch of the two teams from the preceding season (a 79-66 Clemson victory). In San Juan, the Gophers and Tigers played a defensive battle in the first half with Minnesota claiming a 25-20 halftime lead, but Minnesota used a fierce defense to limit Clemson’s effectiveness on the inside and went on to a 10-point victory, 75-65. McIntyre finished with 23 points. Code had 13 while Jamison and Greg Buckner each scored 12 points apiece. This is Clemson’s third time to play in Puerto Rico. Clemson has never finished lower than second in Puerto Rico.

Against The PR Final Four With wins yesterday, Clemson, Cincinnati, Ala-bama and Washington moved into the winner’s bracket of the Puerto Rico Holiday Classic. Clemson has played Alabama the most of any of Wednesday’s winners. The Tigers and Crim-son Tide have split six games, four of which have been played on neutral sites. Alabama holds a 3-1 lead in neutral site games after winning the last meeting (57-48) between the schools in the final round of the 1989 San Juan Shootout. Clemson’s two other victories in the series were played in Tuscaloosa in 1968 and in Clemson in 1969.

Clemson and Cincinnati have played two times with the Bearcats taking both meetings. Clemson is 0-1 vs. Washington after losing 76-66 to the Huskies in the Great Alaska Shootout in 1982.