South Carolina will shoot for its fifth straight victory Tuesday night when it hosts No. 25 Clemson in the annual Palmetto Series rivalry game in Columbia, S.C.
The Tigers have won five of the last seven meetings, but haven't won at the Gamecocks' Colonial Life Arena since 2018.
Clemson (9-2) dropped nine spots in the AP Top 25 poll Monday after losing to Memphis 87-82 in overtime, and Tigers coach Brad Brownell sees Tuesday's game as another big challenge.
"It's a tough turnaround," Brownell said Saturday after the Memphis game. "It's a big game for a lot of reasons, obviously, it's a rivalry game. We will find out what we're made of. Now you have to rally the troops. With these emotional highs and lows you really don't have that much time to adjust. That will be a real challenge for us. We have to compete and execute to win."
As usual, Clemson's strength is its defense. They allow 64.6 points per game, which is 36th in the nation. Only two opponents have broken the 70-point mark against the Tigers.
Offensively, Clemson rolls with a senior-heavy team that reached the Elite Eight last season. Chase Hunter is averaging a career-high 16 points this season and also setting personal bests in 3-point shooting (37.7 percent), rebounds (3.0 per game) and steals (1.4 per game).
Tigers 6-foot-8 senior forward Ian Schieffelin is third in the nation in rebounds at 12 per game, while also averaging 13 points.
The matchup between Schieffelin and South Carolina star sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles will be one to watch. Murray-Boyles was an All-SEC freshman team pick last season and is shooting 63.9 percent from the field and leading South Carolina with 15.7 points per game.
Jamarii Thomas adds 12.5 ppg and Jacobi Wright averages 10.6 for coach Lamont Paris' South Carolina squad.
Paris has his team on high alert against the Tigers.
"They're not good because someone ranked them and they put a little number next to them," Paris said. "To the eyeball, they're good. They have good players. They do good things. They do winning things."
The Gamecocks are coming off an easy 20-point win over South Carolina Upstate on Saturday in which Nick Pringle went off for a season-high 19 points.
They have losses to Xavier, Indiana and North Florida this season. Like Clemson, they boast a strong defense that gives up 65.8 per game.
Last year's meeting in Clemson was a hot ticket as both teams entered 7-0. Clemson held Murray-Boyles to five points in 17 minutes and won 72-67.
South Carolina leads the all-time series that dates back to the 1912-1913 season 92-81.
"I think you have to ... be really intentional about being ready to go out there and lace them up, be ready to scrap and claw and fight, because they're going to do the same thing," Paris said. "And then, follow your principles and your rules that you've learned that allow you to be successful."
--Field Level Media
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