Jerai Grant scored a career-best 22 points and the fast-starting Tigers built a double-figure lead and never backed off in beating Alabama-Birmingham 70-52 on Tuesday night in an NCAA tournament “First Four” game at the University of Dayton Arena.
There was little time to celebrate. The Tigers hurried to catch a flight to their second-round game against fifth-seeded West Virginia (20-11) on Thursday afternoon in Tampa, Florida
In other words, their next game is 36 hours after they walked off the court with such wide smiles.
“It certainly is a difficult turnaround to face a good West Virginia team that’s rested and motivated,” Brownell said.
Grant, who hit 10 of 15 shots from the field and also grabbed seven rebounds, said the most important thing was to sleep — and then get prepared.
“Rest is going to be a big factor,” he said. “We have to prepare, watch video of them and go through their sets and we should be fine.”
Demontez Stitt, Clemson’s leading scorer at 14.7 points a game, said it was important for the Tigers to relax and let their bodies have a break.
“We’ve got a plane straight to Tampa now,” he said. “Plane flights can be kind of draining.”
In a matchup of No. 12 seeds, part of the expanded tournament’s new look, the Tigers (22-11) went on a 21-2 run in the first half and never let the big lead slip away, as they had in Saturday’s overtime loss to North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals.
Milton Jennings added 11 points and Tanner Smith and Devin Booker each had 10 for Clemson, picked to finish seventh in the ACC. The win was its first in the NCAA tournament since the 1997 team advanced to the round of 16.
“Our energy was great early,” Brownell said. “We swarmed them a little bit and knocked some balls loose and got out in transition and got a nice lead.”
Ahead 39-27 at the break, Clemson never let the Blazers draw closer than eight points in the second half.
UAB’s hopes wilted when, already trailing 61-42, it lost point guard Aaron Johnson.
Johnson, leading the nation in assists at 7.7 per game, was injured while trying to prevent an easy layup by Grant. After lying on the floor for several minutes, he left the court on crutches with what coach Mike Davis called a broken leg. Johnson received a round of applause from the crowd of 10,025.
Jamarr Sanders had 19 points and Dexter Fields 12 for UAB, regular-season champions of Conference USA.
Both teams were among the final four at-large teams to get into the tournament. Each had spells when they didn’t look as though they deserved berths — but UAB’s bad spell lasted a lot longer.
As if to take a slap at doubters who didn’t think they belonged in the field, the Tigers came out smoking.
Grant, who had opened the scoring, rebounded his own miss and hit the follow with 6:34 left to swell the Clemson lead to 31-11.
Meanwhile, the Blazers continually turned over the ball and when they did get off a shot, they missed the mark. They didn’t have a field goal for almost 8 1/2 minutes of the opening half and had more turnovers (eight) than points (seven) in the opening 10:30.
UNC Asheville 81 Ark-Little Rock 77, OT: In Dayton, Ohio, Matt Dickey led a late run that forced overtime and J.P. Primm hit five free throws and had a decisive steal in the closing seconds, sending North Carolina-Asheville to a victory over Arkansas-Little Rock in a dramatic “First Four” opener.
The Bulldogs (20-13) will play Pittsburgh, the top seed in the Southeast, on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
UNC Asheville pulled it out with a tournament-worthy performance by its best player. The Bulldogs led for only 51 seconds in regulation, before Dickey asserted himself. He scored 14 of their last 18 points in regulation, including a 3-pointer with 10.5 seconds to go that tied it.
Primm and Dickey had 22 points apiece.
Alex Garcia-Mendoza matched his career high with 21 points for Arkansas-Little Rock (19-17). The Trojans played overtime without Solomon Bozeman, the Sun Belt player of the year who fouled out in the final minute of regulation. He finished with 18 points.
