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Rivers' 24 points leads Clemson past South Carolina

Dec 2, 2007 - 2:32 AM CLEMSON, South Carolina (Ticker) -- K.C. Rivers put up another solid effort.

Rivers scored a season-high 24 points as No. 18 Clemson posted an 85-74 victory over South Carolina on Saturday.

Trevor Booker scored 15 points and Cliff Hammonds and freshman Demontez Stitt each had 13 for Clemson (7-0), which has started 7-0 for the third straight season and has won 36 of its last 37 home games vs. nonconference opponents. The Tigers have also won four straight over the Gamecocks.

Rivers, who had 18 points to tie his season high in a 61-58 win against Purdue on Wednesday, came into this game scoring a team-high 15.5 points. He connected on 8-of-18 from the floor for the Tigers who led, 43-26, at the half.

"I thought we played pretty well," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "We had a good point margin in the first half, which is important. They were in chase mode."

The 6-5 junior, who had nine points at the break, had six of Clemson's first 12 points to help push the lead to 55-36 less than four minutes into the second half.

"You get frustrated when you aren't playing well," said South Carolina coach Dave Odom, who received a technical foul in the second half. "I can't say officials make you play bad. You get frustrated because of your own play."

After Zam Fredrick made a layup to cut the Gamecocks' deficit to 60-51, Rivers hit a 3-pointer and a layup of his own to extend the lead to 14 with 8:18 remaining.

"I saddled it up and got on a run for a second there," Rivers said.

The Charlotte native then scored six points in the last two minutes, including four free throws in the final 30 seconds to keep the winning margin at double digits.

"We put them away with free throws," said Rivers of his team, which hit nine of its final 10 foul shots.

Fredrick scored 28 points and Devan Downey had 19 for the Gamecocks (4-4), who have lost 32 of their last 33 road games against ranked teams.

"I think we are a good team, but I think we're going to be even better," Odom said. "We need to stand up and play better."