Tigers’ lackluster performance good enough to beat Charleston Southern

Tiger Woods’ wife Elin looks on from the eighth hole at the Target World Challenge Sunday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) CLEMSON — It may have been final exam week, but Clemson’s basketball team didn’t ace its game against Charleston Southern. Coach Oliver Purnell was at least happy the Tigers managed a passing grade.

The Tigers (5-1) played well in spurts, but could very rarely maintain that style of play for more than a few minutes at a time.

As a result, Clemson got a closer than expected 73-55 victory over the Buccaneers on Saturday night in front of a very sparse crowd at Littlejohn Coliseum.

‘‘Obviously we could have played better,’’ Tigers coach Oliver Purnell said. ‘‘But I feel good about getting out of here with a win following exam week. We just didn’t have the energy tonight that we’ve had other nights.’’

Purnell says this is traditionally the toughest week to get his team’s attention because they’re typically up nights studying.

Two players who seemed unaffected by it all for Clemson were center Sharrod Ford and guard Cliff Hammonds.

Ford led all scorers with 16 points and also grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots.

Hammonds did all his damage from the outside by hitting 5-of-5 from the field, including four 3-pointers, to finish with 14 points.

After missing his first eight 3-pointers to start the season, Hammonds has connected on his last 14-of-19 from beyond the arc.

Hammonds’ scoring output picked up the slack for junior guard Shawan Robinson, who entered the game as Clemson’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game, but was scoreless Saturday night for the first time since his freshman season.

The Tigers opened the game on a 9-0 run over the first 5:47 and Charleston Southern (1-3) didn’t score its first basket until the 13:24 mark of the first half.