National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Clemson 76, Miami-Florida 65
When: 2:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 16, 2016
Where: Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, South Carolina
Officials: # Roger Ayers, # Bill Covington, # Tim Kelly
Attendance: 12575

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A new year may have been just what Clemson needed.

The Tigers, who were 7-6 in the 2015 portion of their schedule, are undefeated in 2016, with their latest conquest coming Saturday afternoon against No. 8 Miami in an Atlantic Coast Conference game.

Forward Jaron Blossomgame scored 25 points to power Clemson to a 76-65 victory at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

Blossomgame made 9 of 15 shots from the floor and also grabbed seven rebounds for the Tigers, who closed the game on a 25-8 run.

"Our guys showed a lot of resiliency," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "There were a couple of things that happened in the game that could've hurt our confidence, but we executed at a very high level offensively and got the win."

The victory gave Clemson three consecutive wins against ranked opponents for the first time in school history and five straight wins against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents for the first time since 1997.

Clemson has beaten No. 16 Louisville, No. 6 Duke and No. 8 Miami in a six-day span, and the Tigers will attempt to knock off a fourth straight ranked opponent on Tuesday when they play at No. 13 Virginia.

Clemson (12-6, 5-1) is 10-2 this season at "The Well," the team's home-away-from-home while Littlejohn Coliseum is undergoing a $62 million renovation.

"With the fans coming out more, it definitely gives you that home court feeling," Blossomgame said. "We've been playing well here and we want to keep that rolling."

Miami (13-3, 2-2), which entered the game having won eight of nine games, held the upper hand early in a first half that saw nine ties and nine lead changes and ended with the Hurricanes holding a 34-32 edge, thanks in large part to making 5 of 6 shots from 3-point range.

Miami led 57-51 with 7:38 remaining, but Blossomgame scored eight straight points to spark the Tigers' game-ending run.

Blossomgame's 25 points were one shy of his career high, and the junior has scored in double figures in 15 of 18 games this season, including six in a row.

Senior guard Jordan Roper also shined, scoring 18 points while adding six assists and five steals. Sophomore forward Donte Grantham had 14 points for Clemson, which was a perfect 15 of 15 from the free-throw line -- the highest percentage in six seasons under Brownell, given a minimum of 10 attempts.

"We won this game because we executed offensively and Jordan and Jaron were playing at a very high level," Brownell said. "That is as high a level as we have out of guys in the last couple of years, for us to have guys make those types of reads and decisions and play with that kind of confidence. I felt like they were the difference in the game."

Blossomgame and Roper combined to score 17 of Clemson's final 25 points.

Miami, meanwhile, suffered its first loss of the year when leading at the half.

The Hurricanes had a 32-30 rebounding edge, but also suffered their first defeat of the season when winning the rebounding battle.

The Hurricanes were led by junior guard Davon Reed, who had 17 points, and senior guard Sheldon McClellan, who scored 14.

Senior guard Angel Rodriguez, who entered the game as Miami's second-leading scorer at 11.7 points per game, was held to just three points on 1-of-7 shooting.

"It was a terrific college basketball game for about 35 minutes, and then we collapsed in the last five," Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. "Clemson was terrific down the stretch, they made all their free throws, they made their 3s.

"We're a very good 3-point shooting team and we went 7 of 14 from 3, but they out-executed us in the last five minutes and that was the difference in the ball game."

NOTES: Clemson junior C Sidy Djitte had 10 rebounds in 21 minutes of playing time; it was his fifth double-figure rebounding game this season. ... Senior C Landry Nnoko had at least one block for the 15th time in 18 games and ranks second in the ACC with an average of 2.4 blocks per game. ... Since joining the ACC for the 2004-05 season, Miami is 9-8 against Clemson, but just 2-7 in road games against the Tigers. ... Miami senior C Tonye Jekiri had a team-best 11 rebounds and has had 10 or more rebounds in 10 games this season.
Top Game Performances
 
Miami-Florida   Clemson
Davon Reed 17 Scoring Jaron Blossomgame 25
Angel Rodriguez 3 Assists Jordan Roper 6
Tonye Jekiri 11 Rebounds Sidy Djitte 10
Ja'Quan Newton 3 Free Throws Made Jaron Blossomgame 5
Tonye Jekiri 1 Steals Jordan Roper 5
Tonye Jekiri 3 Blocks Jaron Blossomgame 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Miami-Florida 65 43.6 7-14 10-14 9 30 3 4 13
Clemson 76 48.2 7-16 15-15 15 28 3 8 8