Clemson Tigers Reach Another Milestone with Victory over North Carolina

The Clemson Tigers kept on rolling two days after upsetting No. 2 Duke, as they blew out North Carolina, 85-65, at Littlejohn Coliseum on Monday night.

Earlier in the day, the AP Top 25 voters finally put the Tigers back in the poll, as the Tigers were ranked No. 23.

The Tigers (20-5, 12-2 in ACC) didn’t have a let-down game against the Tar Heels, as forward Viktor Lakhin had 22 points, Chase Hunter had 19 points and Jaeden Zackery had 16 points. As a team, the Tigers made 12 3-pointers and shot nearly 50%.

But the win also allowed Clemson to accomplish something it rarely does — a blue-blood sweep.

The Tigers beat Duke and North Carolina for the first time since the 2019-20 season and for just the third time in the last 30 years, according to The State.

With the victory, the Tigers remain one game behind Duke in the ACC standings and in a tie for second with the Louisville Cardinals, which handed Clemson of its two league losses this season.

Clemson could have taken a step back against UNC, given all it accomplished by beating the Blue Devils last weekend.

The Tigers, unranked at the time, ran its streak of wins over AP Top 5 teams while an unranked team to give games. For perspective, it is not only the longest streak of its kind in Division I, but no team has done that four times in the 25-team AP poll era, which started in 1989-90.

The last time the Tigers beat a team as highly ranked as Duke was another Tobacco Road school, North Carolina. On Feb. 1, 2001, the Tigers upset the No. 1 Tar Heels, 76-65.

Clemson’s victory over Duke was its 14th win at home over a Top 25 ranked Duke team. It was also the Tigers’ highest ranked win over the Blue Devils since Jan. 9, 1980, when Duke was the country’s No. 1 team. At the time of that victory, Duke had a different coach. Mike Krzyzewski was still the coach at Army West Point.

Coach Brad Brownell recently claimed career victory No. 450 and is coming off taking Clemson to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1980, when the program was led by Bill Foster.

Clemson has not made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances under Brownell. The Tigers was a No. 8 seed in ESPN’s most recent Bracketology.