LOS ANGELES — The Clemson followers who made the cross-country journey to Los Angeles for the West Regional semifinals have been outnumbered by the Arizona followers who stuffed Crypto.com Enviornment, however by the point the buzzer sounded and Clemson outlasted Arizona 77-72 to punch its first Elite Eight ticket since 1980, the patch of purple and orange on one facet of the court docket was by far the loudest.
“Immediately was our day,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell mentioned postgame. “That was a big-time sport by our guys.”
It was a de facto dwelling sport for the Wildcats, however Clemson’s propensity for quick begins as soon as once more put the Tigers within the driver’s seat early on. Arizona did not rating for the primary three minutes of the sport, and Clemson raced out to a 27-14 lead that quelled the opposing crowd. The Tigers will now face No. 4 seed Alabama within the subsequent spherical with every program aiming to make its first Last 4.
“I mentioned earlier to the workforce, we have performed in additional intense, tougher environments than that,” senior heart PJ Corridor mentioned. “We have had more durable highway video games, one at Chapel Hill, one at Alabama, one at an ice hockey rink in Canada towards TCU. We have performed in powerful locations coming into this sport … we have been calm.”
After taking down No. 3 seed Baylor within the spherical of 32, Clemson as soon as once more stunned by stifling Arizona’s offense. At one level, the Wildcats have been capturing 15% from the sphere, and so they completed an abysmal 5-of-28 from 3. To listen to Brownell and Clemson’s gamers inform it, they weren’t intimidated by Arizona’s expertise or tempo of play, which they slowed to their liking for many of the sport.
“I’ve acquired an older workforce. These guys have seen rather a lot, achieved rather a lot and skilled success,” Brownell mentioned.
“We have been calm,” added Corridor. “That speaks to our veterans, too, plenty of older guys within the group. Staying calm and with the ability to face up to runs.”
Clemson’s expertise was on full show. Not solely did the Tigers restrict the Wildcats to properly under their scoring and capturing totals, however they have been capable of face up to the inevitable Arizona run that tied the sport within the second half and, at one level, even gave the Wildcats a slim lead.
“We talked about it at halftime,” Brownell mentioned. “‘Guys, they will make one other run or two.’ And we have used the phrase ‘we’re constructed for this, we will deal with this.’ We’ve confidence in our workforce. We have gained some big-time highway video games this yr. We have performed a really difficult schedule.”
With 10 minutes left in a tied sport, the Tigers remained calm and caught to their sport plan on offense — attacking the paint — whereas switching to zone protection and letting Arizona shoot its means out of the sport. Over these ultimate 10 minutes, Clemson outscored Arizona 21-16 to cement the consequence: a spot within the Elite Eight for under the second time in class historical past.
Although Brownell mentioned he considers his workforce to have extra offensive gamers than defensive, the Tigers have now held each one among their three opponents on this event beneath 40% capturing from the sphere. Limiting Arizona’s offense — the third-highest scoring unit within the nation — to solely 72 factors was additional proof that they’ve the power to take care of anybody on any given night time. Maybe nobody else anticipated them to get this far. However now that they are right here, their confidence is at an all-time excessive.
“I simply assume our guys have plenty of perception in one another, and I definitely have plenty of perception in my workforce,” Brownell mentioned. “We’re enjoying good basketball proper now. And something can occur in these tournaments.”
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