CLEMSON -- Joe Girard III scored 24 points, hitting four 3-pointers, and No. 18 Clemson pulled away early to close nonconference play with a 93-58 victory over Radford on Friday night.
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Girard, the Syracuse transfer, had 17 points in the opening period and 12 of those during a 28-9 game-changing run as the Tigers (11-1) took control for good.
Radford (10-5), coming off a last-second 66-65 win at West Virginia on Dec. 20, could not hold up against another power conference opponent and fell to 0-5 against Clemson.
PJ Hall added 17 points and Chase Hunter 16 for the Tigers, who’ll jump back into Atlantic Coast Conference with their next game at Miami on Wednesday night.
Kenyon Giles led Radford with 17 points.
Radford, behind Giles’ 12 points in the first 10 minutes, stayed close and trailed 21-14 after DaQuan Smith’s bucket with 9:47 left in the half. Clemson answered with the dominant run to the half for a 49-23 lead to put things out of reach.
The Tigers led by 43 points in the second half and held Radford, which came in averaging 74.6 points, to its second- lowest output this season.
R.J. Godfrey led all Tiger scorers off the bench with 10 points.
Ian Schieffelin added a game-high 13 rebounds.
Clemson shot 56.7-percent from the field and hit 11-of-29 from long range while converting a perfect 14-of-14 from the foul line.
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Radford shot just 41.5% and was 8-of-22 from three-point range.
THE BIG PICTURE
Radford: The Highlanders are 0-3 against ranked opponents this season, previously losing to then-No. 19 North Carolina and then-No. 24 James Madison last month. But without injured forward Justin Archer, hurt in the win at West Virginia, Radford could not match up with Clemson.
Clemson: The Tigers close their nonconference schedule they way they drew it up in the preseason with 10 of 11 victories. Early losses a year ago to struggling opponents like South Carolina and Loyola-Chicago likely kept Clemson out of the NCAA Tournament.
UP NEXT
Radford: Opens Big South Conference play at home against High Point on Wednesday night.
Clemson: Returns to ACC play Wednesday night at Miami. The Tigers will face the Hurricanes at 8 p.m. The game will air on ESPN.
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