In the five games before No. 22 Clemson played Boston College men’s basketball, Nick Davidson was averaging about eight points per game. On Tuesday night, Davidson scored 25 points off the bench and shot 4-for-6 from three, leading the Tigers in scoring as they blew the Eagles out 74–50.
Fred Payne led the Eagles (7–10, 0–4 Atlantic Coast) in scoring, putting up 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting. No other player scored double digits for BC as the Tigers (15–3, 5–0) handed the Eagles their fourth-straight loss.
BC shot 38 percent from the free-throw line, making five of its 13 attempts. Donald Hand Jr. did not score in the game.
Jayden Hastings racked up six blocks on the defensive end, but his efforts weren’t enough to stop the Tigers from dominating the Eagles.
The Eagles’ first three buckets were 3-point makes, two of which came from Luka Toews. He sank one to put BC up 9–8 about five minutes into the game. BC kept things close—even leading by several points in the first ten minutes—but once Davidson got going, there was little hope for the Eagles.
A 12-foot floater from Payne put BC up 15–11, but Davidson countered it with a layup on the other end. That was the beginning of a 21–9 run for Clemson.
It wasn’t a team effort, though. Davidson scored all 21 of those points.
With two minutes left in the half, another Tiger finally scored as Jestin Porter hit a three to give the Tigers a 35–24 lead. They closed the half on an alley-oop dunk and up by ten, leading 37–27.
More than 3:30 passed in the second half before the Eagles scored a bucket. Two more minutes passed before they scored their second basket. Meanwhile, Clemson was finding ways to score—sometimes by raining threes, other times by battling in the paint.
Payne tried to take over, scoring 10 quick points in less than three minutes at about the midpoint of the half. The Tigers were scoring at will, though, and turnovers plagued the Eagles as they tried to fight their way back into the game.
The Eagles committed 19 turnovers to the Tigers’ 10.
Payne scored five of BC’s last seven points—a fitting end considering he was the only Eagle that was able to make a dent on the offensive end—and BC remained winless in the ACC.