Welling, Davidson lead No. 22 Clemson to a 63-52 victory, its 15th straight against Pittsburgh
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Carter Welling and Nick Davidson scored 12 points each and No. 22 Clemson used a big first-half run to take control on the way to its 15th straight win over Pittsburgh, 63-52, on Saturday.
Welling and Davidson combined for 17 second-half points for the Tigers (18-4, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who opened a 17-point lead at halftime and gave Clemson coach Brad Brownell his 200th home win over 16 seasons.
The Panthers (9-13, 2-7) used a 14-4 run at the start of the second half to get the lead into single digits. But RJ Godfrey had two inside baskets and Welling scored six straight points to restore Clemson’s large lead.
Pitt has struggled during ACC play. It had hoped to carry momentum from an overtime win against Wake Forest earlier this week into Clemson.
But the Tigers’ defense kicked in midway through the opening half as they went on a 26-9 run over a 13-minute span to take control. Efrem “Butta” Johnson had two of Clemson’s five threes during that surge while the Panthers shot just shot 21% and were 2-of-18 from behind the arc the first 20 minutes.
Johnson’s second 3-pointer put Clemson up 33-16 at the half.
Roman Siulepa land Damarco Minor ed Pittsburgh with 12 points apiece. The Panthers’ leading scorer, Brandin Cummings, was held to points, 11 fewer than his average.
Godfrey finished with 10 points for the Tigers.
The game went on as scheduled despite a rare winter storm throughout the state of South Carolina that was expected to leave up to 8 inches of snow on campus.
Up next
Pitt: Goes to No. 17 Virginia on Tuesday night.
Clemson: Goes West to play Stanford on Wednesday night.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball