By Ron Pitts for Urban Media Today
American, led by Coach Simpkins is in his third season with the Eagles, entered the game with a 0-1 record. Meanwhile the Tigers entered the game 1-0, coming off the heels of a 13 point win over Stetson, led by Jr. Guard Ace Buckner with a career high of 20 points.
Coach Brownell hadn’t been pleased with his team’s defense in the preseason and first game of season. He was looking to bounce back on defense and put a complete defensive game together on Friday night.
The Tigers got off to a slow start in the first half allowing the Eagles to take a 13-6 lead before the first media timeout. Clemson eventually settled into the game and clawed back to take the lead on with two big three pointers by #45 Liutauras Lelevicius.
Clemson went into halftime with a 39-35 lead over American. They were led by Lelevivius with 9 points (3-3 from three) and Dylan Faulkner with 9 points. The Tigers allowed the Eagles to shoot 50% in the first half while they shot 47% from the field in the first half.
Ace Buckner got hot in the second half shooting 5-6 from the three-point line along with a drive to the basket for a layup and drawing the and one, giving him19 second half points (26 total). With Buckner’s hot hand along with Lelevivius having a big night on the boards with 7 second half rebounds, Coach Brownell’s Tigers were able to take command of the game and pull away for the 82-73 win.
#8 David Fuchs Clemson.
#25 Eric Michael’s American
Coach Simpkins said that he learned a lot about his team’s resiliency coming into an environment like this and facing a team such as Clemson. He went on to say a game such as this will make his team a resilient bunch and this is what they will need going into conference play. Simpkins said Clemson’s size and ball screens made it tough for his team to allow the Tigers to come back in the game.
Liutauras Lelevicius had his first career double double with 17 points and 10 rebounds
Lelevicius said that coaches want the wings to be better on the boards due to their size, so that attributed to the aggressiveness on the boards.
Coach Brownell credited American being a quality opponent and said they are the type of team that they would face in the NCAA tournament. He said they are a well coached team.
He said his team forced the Eagles to make some really tough shots with a hand in their face. He called it “shake your hand threes”. Coach went on to say he knew this was going to be a hard game. Brownell said that Chase Thompson (8 points) and Dallas Thomas (7 points) helped the team settle in after a slow start.
The Tigers start the season 2-0 as they welcome North Dakota on Monday night at 7pm at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Tonight’s stat leaders:
Scoring: Ace Buckner 26 points
Rebounds: Liutauras Lelevicius 10 rebounds
Assist: Ace Buckner 6 assists