SAN DIEGO – Clemson isn’t all about football.
This season, the South Carolina school is pretty good at men’s basketball, too, and now it’s going to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 for the first time in 21 years.
Players on the Auburn bench watch the second half of Sunday’s blowout loss to Clemson. Auburn was a No. 4 seed for the NCAA tournament after sharing the SEC regular-season title, but cold shooting doomed it in the second round against Clemson.Gabe DeVoe scored 22 points and Elijah Thomas had 18 points and 11 rebounds for fifth-seeded Clemson, which closed the first half with a 25-4 run that helped it beat cold-shooting Auburn 84-53 on Sunday night and advance to the Midwest Region semifinals.
“I think it’s a statement game,” Clemson guard Marcquise Reed said. “I think we showed how hard we can compete defensively. I think it’s a real good game for us moving forward.”
In a matchup between Southern schools better known for football – both have won national championships in that sport – and each with Tigers for its nickname, Clemson proved far more adept on the hardwood in this meeting than No. 4 seed Auburn.
The blowout win put Clemson (25-9) into the Sweet 16 for the fourth time overall and the first since 1997.
It was a humbling end for Auburn (26-8), which played this season under the cloud of a federal investigation into corruption in college basketball but still shared the Southeastern Conference’s regular-season title with Tennessee. The final 10 1/2 minutes of the first half were a nightmare for Auburn, which shot just 6-for-33 (18.2 percent) in the first half and 17-of-66 overall (25.8 percent).
“I really don’t know where we lost our focus,” Auburn guard Bryce Brown said. “All I can really honestly remember is they had a few stretches where they came down and knocked down shots, and we had a few stretches where we came down and took kind of bad shots at times, and that led to easy fast breaks for them.”
Jared Harper made a jumper with 10:33 before halftime to pull Auburn to 18-15. Auburn then missed its next 18 field goals as Clemson raced to a 43-19 halftime lead.
Clemson scored 17 straight points, highlighted by 3-pointers by Anthony Oliver II and DeVoe, to make it 35-15.
Chuma Okeke made two free throws for Auburn, but it still couldn’t hit a field goal. Auburn got two more free throws by Mustapha Heron with 1:20 to go.
Auburn finally snapped the drought from the field when Brown hit a 3-pointer 44 seconds into the second half. All that did was pull Auburn within 21 points.
“I felt like they had a couple of good looks and they weren’t able to knock them down,” DeVoe said. “But we play well defensively like that. The easy looks don’t go in all the time. I think pressure and our defensive intensity really bottled them up offensively.”
Auburn’s Jared Harper said the drought “was just bad for us early and it affected what we could do offensively and defensively.”
Explained Davion Mitchell: “We just got away from playing offense together and playing defense together.”
Heron and Brown scored 12 points apiece for Auburn, and Horace Spencer had 10.
For Clemson, Reed had 16 and Shelton Mitchell 10.
The rout was so complete, Clemson subbed in two walk-ons for the final two minutes.
“I don’t know how long since we’ve been to the Sweet 16, but I know for a fact this won’t be the last time,” Oliver said. “We have a special group of guys, not only for this year but for next year and the year after that.”
Auburn heads into an uncertain offseason. Assistant coach Chuck Person was indicted as part of a federal investigation that cost two of Auburn’s best players their eligibility.
Person was accused of accepting bribes to steer players to a financial adviser once they turned pro and funneling money to the families of Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy. Neither played this season.
BIG PICTURE
Clemson made 10 of 26 3-pointers. DeVoe made 6 of 9.
Auburn heads into an uncertain offseason. Assistant coach Chuck Person was indicted as part of a federal investigation that cost two of Auburn’s best players their eligibility. Person allegedly accepted bribes to steer players to a financial adviser once they turned pro and allegedly funneled money to the families of Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy. Neither played this season.
UP NEXT
Clemson plays top-seeded Kansas on Friday in Omaha.