Tigers Hold Off Bucs In Opening Round Of NIT, 64-57

March 14, 2007

Photo Gallery (courtesy of Mark Crammer)

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -K.C. Rivers and Trevor Booker had double-doubles to lift Clemson to a 64-57 victory over East Tennessee State in the NIT on Wednesday night.

Rivers finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Booker had 11 points and 11 boards.

The Tigers (22-10) have won the past seven NIT games played at Littlejohn Coliseum.

As the South region’s No. 1 seed, they’ll get a chance to keep that string going as they’ll host either Mississippi or Appalachian State in a second-round matchup Monday night.

Without Rivers’ shooting and Booker’s inside strength down the stretch, it might have been ETSU moving on.

Eryk Thomas made an inside bucket that put the Bucs (24-10) ahead 49-48 with 6:22 left.

Cliff Hammonds’ 3-pointer regained the lead for Clemson and then Booker, the Tigers’ 6-foot-7 freshman took over.

He made two foul shots, then followed with two more inside baskets as Clemson went ahead 57-51.

The Bucs got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Courtney Pigram, the Atlantic Sun Conference’s player of the year, led ETSU with 25 points.

The Bucs couldn’t match up under the boards with the bigger, quicker Tigers, getting outrebounded 51 to 32.

Clemson’s poor shooting – it finished 33.3 percent (25 of 66) – kept things close.

Rivers is Clemson’s most consistent outside shooter, but finished 1-for-7 behind the arc. He did his best work under the glass with his career high in rebounds. His previous best was 10 rebounds set a game ago in an Atlantic Coast Conference tournament loss to Florida State.

The Tigers started quickly and looked like they had control of the game as they used an early 10-0 run to lead 17-8. But they made only one of their next 15 shots as the Bucs moved ahead 21-19 on Andrew Reed’s inside basket with 4:58 left in the period.

A.J. Tyler, a little used reserve, sparked Clemson down the stretch in another 10-0 run. He hit a 3-pointer, then followed Booker’s miss with a putback. By the time Rivers stroked a 3 20 seconds later, Clemson was in front, 29-21.