Fresh off winning an in-season tournament, Clemson will host Florida A&M on Friday night.
The Tigers (6-1) have won three in a row and are coming off a 75-67 victory over Penn State, which handed the Nittany Lions their first loss of the season in the Sunshine Slam’s Beach Division final.
Clemson faces the Rattlers (1-4) before entering a tough stretch of games that begins with a matchup against No. 8 Kentucky and continues with its Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Miami.
Shaqir O’Neal scored 26 points to lead Florida A&M to its first win of the season, a lopsided 110-68 victory over Trinity Baptist of the NCCAA last Friday.
Florida A&M had a season-best 17-of-39 shooting performance from 3-point range to key the win over Trinity Baptist — its first under first-year coach Patrick Crarey II. They also recorded 21 assists and had 49 points from their bench.
However, the Rattlers have struggled mightily in their first four games against power-conference foes, losing each contest by 24 or more points.
Presenting another major obstacle for Florida A&M are the Tigers, who are averaging 74.7 points per game during their recent three-game winning streak, led by Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin.
Hunter enters Friday’s game averaging a team-best 16.4 points per game and shooting 48.6 percent from 3-point range and 51.9 percent overall.
Schieffelin is averaging a double-double with 13.6 points and 11.1 rebounds over the first seven games. He finished with an impressive 18 points and 13 rebounds in each of the Tigers’ wins at the Sunshine Slam over San Francisco and Penn State.
“Ian was phenomenal, almost getting a triple-double,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell told the Clemson Insider. “I thought altogether, guys just made a lot of really tough plays. It was a possession or two game most of the game.”
Sterling Young has paced the Rattlers with 13 points per game while Milton Matthews adds 11 ppg.
–Field Level Media
