There was no late-game drama this time.

Clemson, the No. 12 seed, got 22 points each from guard Shelton Mitchell and forward Jaron Blossomgame as the Tigers rolled to an easy 75-61 victory over No. 13 seed NC State in the first round of the 2017 ACC Basketball Tournament at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Tuesday.

NC State’s Dennis Smith, Jr. missed a three-pointer last week with three seconds to play in the Tigers’ four-point win at Littlejohn last Wednesday that could have won the game for State. But Clemson grabbed an 11-point halftime lead on an Avry Holmes three with three seconds to play in the first half on Tuesday, and then did not allow the Wolfpack to get closer that eight points the rest of the way.

“Our team has shown unbelievable amounts of character this year,” Clemson head coach Brownell said. “I don’t know if people speak to that enough … If you look at our schedule and the way we have played every team in this league, and we had a couple of bad outings, but in every other game we have been in the game with a chance to win with a minute or less to go.

“It is not easy to come back to practice every week when you are losing one-point games, two-point games and one-point games in a variety of ways. Some of the reason for that is the character of the guys I coach. I have great kids on the team and they represent us phenomenally on and off the court and they just will not give in. So yes it is nice to win a game like this, but I have been extremely proud of this team on nights when we have lost.”

The 14-point win matched Clemson’s largest margin of victory in ACC play this season, which came in the Tigers last game against Boston College.

Besides his 22 points, Mitchell also finished the game with six assists as the Tigers outscored NC State 40-22 in the paint.

The Tigers (17-14) just didn’t play well on the offensive end of the court, but on the defensive end, too. They held NC State’s best player and top scorer, Smith, to seven points on 3-of-12 shooting and 11 points under his season average.

Smith had just two points at the break and was 1-of-7 from the field.

“I thought we kept him out of transition at good bit,” Brownell said. “He is dynamic in the open floor. Whether it was just making shots or missing shots around the rim so we did not have long misses that led to run outs and open court play for him, helped. I think he is a terrific player and when he gets a full head of steam, you can’t guard him with one player.

“I think keeping him in the half court, executing offensively with shot selection and not having live ball turnovers kept that situation where we wanted it.”

Overall, State (15-17) shot just 38 percent from the field and 29 percent from behind the three-point line, while turning the basketball over 15 times.

“We had a couple of different guys guarding (Smith),” Brownell said. “Avery started and then tweaked his ankle. Marcquise got some minutes there and I thought both of those guys did a really good job of making it a little bit difficult when he got rid of the ball and not making them easy catches. Then our big guys did a good job in ball screen defense.”

While Smith struggled, Clemson’s star rose to the top. Blossomgame was unstoppable in the first half as he scored 14 of his 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting in the first 20 minutes. The only thing that slowed him down was himself, when he picked up an early third foul in the second half and had to sit for much of the first 10 minutes on the bench.

When Blossomgame came back, he scored six quick points and helped Mitchell put the game away.

Speaking of Mitchell, he was all over the floor for the Tigers, especially in the second half. He had a nice give-and-go to Elijah Thomas that helped Clemson extend its lead to 51-39 with 13:18 to play in the second half, and then he nailed a three-pointer from the left corner with 12:03 to play for a 54-41 lead.

Marcquise Reed followed with a three-pointer in the same spot two minutes later to put the Tigers up 16 points, 57-41, with 10:08 to go.

Mitchell, playing in his first ACC Tournament game, also made a couple of floaters in the lane and took advantage of NC State’s inability to get over and close the lane from easy drives to the basket.

The Tigers owned a 40-22 advantage on points scored in the paint and a 13-3 edge on fast-break points. It also helped Clemson had a 17-11 lead on the offensive boards. Sidy Djitte lead the Tigers with 13 rebounds. Thomas added 10 points and had four rebounds.

Clemson will play No. 5 seed Duke at 2 p.m. on Wednesday in the second round of the ACC Tournament. The Blue Devils barely edged the Tigers, 64-62, back on Feb. 11 in Cameron.

—Above photo: Clemson guard Shelton Mitchell (4) dunks during the second half of the ACC  Tournament against the North Carolina State at the Barclays Center. (Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports)