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MEMPHIS — A four-year journey culminated in emotion that Clemson forward PJ Hall couldn’t hold back. The senior sat in his locker following the Tigers’ 72-64 win over Baylor that will send the program to its first Sweet 16 since 2018 — as a South Carolina native, he couldn’t ask for anything more in his final season.

“It’s a dream come true and it’s not over yet.”

Ironically, Clemson’s leading scorer wasn’t a huge part of the win statistically. Hall spent most of Saturday’s game in foul trouble and finished with just 11 points on 4-11 shooting. But in his absence from him, his team from him more than made up his share led by 20 points by Chase Hunter, 13 points by Joseph Girard, 11 points by Ian Schieffelin and eight points and five rebounds by backup big RJ Godfrey in 19 minutes of play . Clemson led for 37:57 of game time and largely controlled the game against a Baylor team that scored 92 points in its first-round win over Colgate.

“One of the strengths is the depth of our team,” Schieffelin said. “We’ve got guys off the bench that can fill anyone’s role — RJ was big today. He knocked down some big free throws. We’ve got a lot of guys that can go.”

Clemson’s defense was the biggest storyline of the game as the Tigers held one of the most potential offenses in college basketball to just 64 points on Saturday. Baylor was the only team nationally with six players averaging double-digit points per game but only had three double-figure scorers against the Tigers. The Bears hit 16 three-pointers in their first-round game against Colgate but only managed six on Saturday on 6-24 shooting.

“Number one, limit 3s,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said of the game plan. “I thought we did as good a job as you can. They only had seven assisted baskets and (Baylor’s RayJ Dennis) is an elite guard and (Baylor coach Scott Drew) does an unbelievable job of moving them around in all these different ways and disguising how they’re going to ball screen you and backside action. I do think we mixed a couple of things up that were good within our coverages, and I’m sure they missed a few that they normally do.

“We obviously were fortunate they missed some free throws. But our guys really competed. I think we were running out of gas at the end so it was hard there at the end. But thankfully we were able to make one or two more plays to win.”

Clemson led almost wire-to-wire but a late 9-0 Baylor cut the lead to 64-62 with 2:10 to play. Hall fouled out within one minute and the foul subsequently sent Baylor to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game at 66 apiece. However, two missed Baylor free throws kept Clemson’s lead intact, the Tigers connected on all six of their free throw attempts in the final 40 seconds to preserve the win.

The Tigers’ win is monumental for the program and the ACC as a conference. Brownell became the first coach in program history to lead the program to two Sweet 16s and Clemson is the fourth ACC team this year to reach the Sweet 16 round, which is the most of any conference. The Tigers were arguably the most unlikely of the teams to make it this far considering that the team had lost three of four games entering the Tournament and were a trendy pick to be upset by No. 11 seed New Mexico in round one.

“I said before the tournament that we aren’t playing as bad as everybody thinks we are,” Brownell said. “And that’s why everybody picked us to lose. We were confident. We didn’t feel like we were on a skid. In fact, I think we won six or seven games in the month of February.

We had a quiet confidence about us coming here. The loss probably helped a little bit because it allowed me to get their attention after losing like that. They were embarrassed, disappointed.”

A little over 10 days since its last loss to Boston College, the Tigers have turned that sense of embarrassment into pride knowing it’s the fifth team in program history to reach the Sweet 16. Next up: a matchup with 2-seed Arizona for a chance at its first Elite Eight bid since 1980.

“These guys have been battling all year and couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to coach,” Brownell said. “Like most teams (we) had a couple of bumps in the road, but these guys never doubted it. We never quit. We just kept working and we came into this tournament pretty determined and pretty confident. Just glad to see it paid off …This was a big win for us.”