GREENVILLE – Clemson’s men’s basketball team has been waiting for its defense to catch up with its offense.

With a suffocating effort complementing three double-figure scorers, it happened Saturday night. The combination helped the Tigers bounce back in a big way.

Chase Hunter scored 18 points, Hunter Tyson added 16 and eight rebounds, and the Tigers cruised past Richmond at Bon Secours Wellness Arena as part of the Greenville Winter Invitational. Clemson’s 85-57 victory — its largest margin of victory this season — came exactly one week after its most lopsided loss to Loyola Chicago.

In that game, Clemson (9-3) shot just 3 of 21 from 3-point range, an off night for a top-25 3-point shooting team nationally. More concerning for Clemson coach Brad Brownell was another porous defensive effort that resulted in the Tigers yielding at least 75 points for the third time in five games.

“Just be aggressive and disruptive,” Hunter said of the team’s defensive mindset coming into Saturday’s game. “Coach talked about that a lot.”

After a week of what Tyson described as “really going at each other” in practice, the Tigers showed up on both ends of the floor against Richmond (5-6), leading by as many as 35 points against a team that was in the NCAA Tournament a season ago. Clemson found its stroke from deep again with 12 3s. Junior big PJ Hall tied a career-high with three trey balls.

It was part of a 49% shooting performance for the Tigers, who also clamped down to hold Richmond to just a 41% clip. Senior wing Tyler Burton, an NBA draft hopeful who tested the waters earlier this year before returning to the Spiders’ program, led all scorers with 21 points, but no other Richmond player had more than 10. Clemson also attempted 15 more shots after forcing the Spiders into 15 turnovers and finished plus-11 on the glass.

“(Burton) showed that he’s an outstanding player, but I think we tried to make him work for it. And I thought we made it hard on most of the other guys,” Brownell said. “Our guys were just very on point, disruptive, physical, active and had active hands.”

Brevin Galloway added 10 points for the Tigers, who got all 15 players that were available into the game.

“I think all week we were really just conveying to each other and holding each other accountable that we’ve really got to pick it up on the defensive end,” Tyson said. “I think we saw that last Saturday, and we didn’t have a very fun film session Monday. But it was good for us, and we needed that to grow.”

Clemson started fast on both ends of the floor, opening up a 23-6 lead at one point in the first half. The Tigers started 4 of 7 from 3-point range and finished the first 20 minutes with as many 3s (7) as Richmond had field goals.

The Spiders shot just 33% in the first half and connected on just one of its first 10 attempts from 3. Clemson also forced Richmond into 10 first-half turnovers. Tyson led the Tigers with 13 first-half points followed by Hunter’s 10, and Alex Hemenway’s corner 3 just before the buzzer sent the Tigers to the break with a 43-19 lead, an advantage that only grew as part of arguably Clemson’s most complete game so far.

“Defensively we haven’t been as good as we need to be, and today we were really sharp,” Brownell said. “Give credit to the energy and activity of our team today. These guys were locked in.”

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

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