Clemson coach Brad Brownell shares high praise for South Carolina, Collin Murray-Boyles
Clemson gave everything it had. It took a miracle three-point heave from Chase Hunter just to send the game to overtime. All night long, the Tigers played from behind and kept giving South Carolina their best shot.
But despite their best efforts, they started to lose some key players who were in foul trouble. First it was Viktor Lahkin fouling out with two minutes left in regulation, then Jaeden Zackery followed by Ian Schieffelin being the biggest loss and picking up his fifth foul two minutes into the extra period.
This opened the window of opportunity for Collin Murray-Boyles to take over, which of course, he did. The sophomore forward scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting with nine rebounds. He ended up fouling out with under a minute to go in overtime, but by that point, he already made a substantial impact in the Gamecocks’ 91-88 win over No. 25 Clemson on Tuesday.
“Certainly, the fouling was a problem for us at the end. And, again they, just they made one or two more plays. Collin Murray-Boyles down the stretch was probably the difference,” said Tigers head coach Brad Brownell.
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Brownell, now in his 15th season at Clemson, watched Murray-Boyles last year when he played in what was his second career game after coming back from mononucleosis. On that night, the Tigers earned a comeback win over South Carolina with a double-double performance from Schieffelin.
One year later, Schieffelin and Murray-Boyles duked it out against each other in the paint like two heavyweight fighters going blow for blow. In the end, Murray-Boyles got the last laugh and forced Clemson’s star forward to take a backseat to the game after fouling out.
“I mean, they’re both terrific players. Collin’s a little longer and a little more athletic. Ian just plays with tremendous heart and spirit. And they’re big pieces of both teams because of it,” Brownell said. “They’re both smart players; they both have high assist numbers this year – unselfish guys. So, certainly, (they’re) terrific guys to coach and watch play.”
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While Murray-Boyles was the Gamecocks’ leading scorer and a key component in their win, Brownell knows this is an all-around good basketball team. That was evident when others such as Myles Stute and Nick Pringle finished with 19 and 18 points, respectively.
“They have a good team. They can play big; they can play small. Pringle helps them. When they have him and (Murray)-Boyles out there, they’re a big strong physical team,” he said. “A guy like Stute has shot the ball poorly all year, makes five threes against us today. But they can spread you and put pressure on your team because of that. We talked about ‘big lineup versus small lineup’ in the game, but we didn’t have an answer for it.”
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Brownell also pointed out how well South Carolina played on the defensive end of the floor. The Tigers got off to a slow start and only shot 31 percent from the field with one made three-pointer in the first half. Their play picked up as the game wore on, but the Gamecocks made enough plays and stops to come out on top.
“We told our guys, ‘These guys don’t make many mistakes.’ They’re in front of you. They have a couple of different ball screen coverages that they mix up nicely,” Brownell said. “And they’re long – they’ve got some length, good on-ball guys. So, they’re just very sound. They don’t turn the ball over. They don’t have bad floor balance, so you’re not going to get a bunch of transition (baskets).”
