Syracuse 57, Clemson 44

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Forward C.J. Fair scored 19 points, and forward Jerami Grant added 12 points and eight rebounds as No. 1 Syracuse held off pesky Clemson 57-44 Sunday in an Atlantic Coast Conference game in the Carrier Dome.

Guard K.J. McDaniels was the only Clemson player in double figures, finishing with 19 points.

The Orange (23-0, 10-0 ACC) tied a school record with its 23rd consecutive win. Syracuse also accomplished the feat in the 1916-17 and 1917-18 seasons.

The Tigers (15-7, 6-4) came into the contest with the No. 1 scoring defense in the country, allowing an average of just 55 points a game. However, the Orange defense proved just as stingy, limiting Clemson to 14-of-41 shooting from the floor (34.1 percent).

Syracuse made 24 of 54 shots (44.4 percent).

The Orange shook off the Tigers with a second-half push.

Fair dropped in two foul shots for a 44-37 Orange edge with 10:25 remaining, then sank a jumper with 8:26 left for a nine-point cushion.

Syracuse guard Tyler Ennis made it 48-37 on a layup with 6:56 left. Tigers guard Damarcus Harrison countered with a trey to bring his team back within 48-40.

Grant’s layup padded Syracuse’s cushion to 10 with 4:45 left, and McDaniels countered with two foul shots to slice the difference to 50-42 with 4:19 remaining.

The Orange then ran off seven in a row, on a layup by center Rakeem Christmas, another short shot by Ennis and a 3-pointer from guard Trevor Cooney for a 57-42 lead with 2:04 remaining.

Clemson pushed back from a 12-point deficit early in the second half to cut the Orange’s lead to five midway through the period.

Syracuse played the second half without center Baye Moussa Keita, who suffered a sprained right knee in the first half.

A slow-paced first half played to Clemson’s game plan, but after some early jousting the Orange rode a 9-0 run late in the half to take a 31-22 lead at the break.

Cooney broke a 22-22 tie with a three-pointer at the 3:43 mark, and Grant’s lay-in boosted the margin to five points with 3:01 remaining.

Grant snared an offensive rebound and put back a layup with 1:10 left for a 29-22 lead. Fair capped the first half with a layup with six seconds left.

Fair led the Orange with 11 points in the first half, and Grant chipped in with eight points and seven rebounds. Syracuse shot 50 percent, drilling 13 of its 26 field-goal attempts.

McDaniels paced the Tigers with nine first-half points. Cold-shooting Clemson hit on just six of 22 shots from the floor before halftime, 27.3 percent.

NOTES: Syracuse, now 10-0 in ACC play during its first year in the conference, never won its first 10 conference games while in the Big East from 1980 to 2013. Syracuse went 9-0 in Big East play in 1999-2000. … Clemson and Syracuse met twice previously, but this was the first time the Orange hosted the Tigers at the Carrier Dome…The Tigers played at the Carrier Dome once before, meeting Seton Hall in the 1990 ACC-Big East Challenge as part of a doubleheader. … Syracuse sophomore Jerami Grant’s father, Harvey, spent one year at Clemson before finishing his college career at Oklahoma. Jerami’s older brother, Jerai, played at Clemson from 2007 to 2011. Jerami’s uncle, Horace, played at Clemson from 1983 to 1987. … The game was Clemson’s first against a top-ranked team since it met North Carolina in the 2008 ACC title game. … Clemson fell to 0-10 against a No. 1-ranked team on the road… Tigers F K.J. McDaniels turned 21 on Sunday. … The game drew a crowd of 25,931.