GREENVILLE — With his team trailing by two points to a much smaller Texas Southern squad at halftime on Thursday, Clemson head coach Brad Brownell made it a point to tell his team the ball was going inside in the second half.

The Tigers responded to the message by going inside the rest of the night as they outscored Texas Southern by 22 points in the paint in the last 20 minutes and subsequently ran away with the game in a 76-56 victory at Greenville’s Bon Secours Wellness Arena.

“At halftime we certainly talked about how this ball is going inside,” Brownell said. “Whatever we have to do to get it inside, get it inside. We have a size advantage here. I only want open threes and inside baskets.

“I thought our guys showed good discipline. I thought our guards showed good discipline and patients to find them and make good post feeds. And then we found some threes out of penetration later in possessions.”

Jaron Blossomgame was one of those guys who took over in the second half. He scored 14 of his team-high 22 points after halftime as he connected on six of eight shots. He finished the game 9 of 16 from the field.

“We just have to make layups. That’s a part of the game,” he said.

The Tigers (3-0) were not making layups in the first 20 minutes. Clemson missed six easy shots around the rim and passed up a couple of more for three-point looks, which they missed. The result was a 33-31 halftime deficit.

“You can’t make every shot you shoot, but in the second half we did,” Blossomgame said. “We handled our business like we needed to and guys played well.”

In all, the Tigers had five players in double figures with Sidy Djitte helping Blossomgame underneath with 13 points with 10 of those coming in the second half. Landry Nnoko, who was in foul trouble for much of the night, scored nine of his 11 points in the second frame … the two big men combined for 21 second half points and were 9-of-13 from the floor overall.

“We kind of wanted to (get the ball in the post) the whole game, but in the first half we just did not get good looks at it, but Coach really wanted to emphasis playing down to shoot and that means from the high post in,” Blossomgame said. “He wanted to get guys on post ups like me posting Landry or vice versa.

“It worked out in the second half for us pretty well.”

Clemson had just eight points in the paint in the first half and were giving Texas Southern a reason to believe they could pull off an upset like they did at Michigan State and at Kansas State last year. Texas Southern won 23 games last year, and has played in multiple NCAA Tournaments, while also winning their league multiple times. Plus it has the second most experienced team back in the country.

“We knew this team … they went to Michigan State and won. They went to Kansas State and won. They were not going to be afraid,” Brownell said. “They just needed to get themselves in a close game and then see what happens. They had one for a half, but to our guys’ credit, we kind of slammed the door on them.”

Clemson slammed the door with a 23-4 run to start the second half to take a 54-37 lead. The Tigers outscored Texas Southern in the last 20 minutes, 45-23.

“I’m really proud of the way our guys played in the second half because it could have gone the other way where we got a little nervous and got scared,” Brownell said. “Then they build off of your indecisiveness, and then they play better and you are in for a real challenge.

“So I thought our guys came out and followed our game plan exceptionally well in the second half, executed, played with great confidence and toughness and really dominated the game in the second half.”

Clemson will play UMass on Monday at 9:30 p.m., in Las Vegas in the third round of the Men Who Speak Up Main Event Tournament.