Clemson had five players score in double digits, while as a team it scored more than 70 points for the first time since Nov. 21, as the Tigers downed ACC rival NC State, 81-70, to win its first conference game of the season.

“This is just a terrific win for our team,” Clemson head coach Brad Brownell said. “I could not be more proud of the way our players played today. We played pretty well in our last game against Miami and did not finish it and that was disappointing and a little bit heartbreaking for our guys because we have been working really, really hard for the last month.

“I just thought the way they responded, we had a challenging film session the other day and had two great days of practice. Then we came in and played about as well as we could offensively.”

The win was just the Tigers’ second in the last eight games, as they improved to 7-7 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. NC State fell to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in ACC play.

Clemson got 17 points and 5 assists from Aamir Simms in the victory at Littlejohn Coliseum, while Al-Amir Dawes dropped in 16 points and had 5 rebounds. Tevin Mack scored 14 points, as did guard Curran Scott, who also had 4 assists. John Newman added 12 points for the Tigers.

“I thought that we could get a couple of layups throughout the game and then you still have all kinds of other plays you have to make, but I thought it gave us a little bit of confidence and settled us down and then you have to play with it,” Brownell said. “We were very good. We did a lot of good things. We shared the ball, we made shots, our bench played well…We played a very good game today.”

The Tigers led by as many as 14 points in the game and took control of the game midway through the second half. Clemson never trailed but had just a 53-52 lead with 11:55 to play following two Pat Andree free throws for NC State.

The Wolfpack was led by D.J. Funderburk’s 14 points.

Clemson shot 47 percent from the field but was just 9-28 from three-point range. The Tigers led by as many as 13 points in the second half.

“We had a couple of days of good practices, so we were well organized, as you could see,” Dawes said.

Newman made his only bucket of the second half and Scott hit a jumper to extend the lead back to five points at 57-52 with 9:55 to go. With 4:56 to play, Scott drained a three-pointer to extend the lead to 66-58. Then Simms made it a 10-point game with two free throws.

“Every time they made a run, we made a play that kind of stopped their run which was good,” Scott said. “In the Miami game we were not able to really do that, but tonight we kind of made a couple in a row and every time they would make a big play, we would come back and make a big play.”

Clemson shot 13-27 from the field in the opening half, including an 8-17 effort from behind the arc. Newman scored 10 first points, while Scott and Simms both had eight points in the first 20 minutes.

“I was struggling a little bit throughout the season trying to find my niche,” Newman said. “I am young, so I am still trying to figure it out but I think tonight, I just kept working hard and tonight just kind of showed the process I have been going though. I just stayed through it.”

The Tigers led by as 14 points in the opening half, thanks to an 11-2 run, which was capped by a Dawes three in the corner. That gave the Tigers a 32-18 lead with 5:24 to play in the half.

NC State scored the last five points of the half on a Manny Bates layup and a Pat Andree three to close the gap to 41-35 at the break.

Clemson gets the next week off before heading to North Carolina next Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The Tigers are 0-59 all-time in Chapel Hill.