CLEMSON, S.C. -- With a bandage covering the brow over his puffy left eye, Vernon Hamilton looked more like a boxer than Clemson's point guard. So it seemed fitting when Hamilton spoke of handling the punches that have come the Tigers' way this season.
Hamilton had 13 points to help the 25th-ranked Tigers remain undefeated at 13-0 with a 75-60 victory over Georgia. And while fast starts are nothing new to Hamilton -- Clemson opened 11-0 a season ago -- he thinks the Tigers are better equipped to keep it going this time.
The difference is "in how we are able to sustain blows. ... A couple of blows we took last year, we would've hung our heads and not continue to stay with our style of basketball," he said. "Now we have complete confidence in one another."
That showed against the Bulldogs (8-3).
With Clemson's two leading scorers, K.C. Rivers and James Mays, struggling to find points, Hamilton and Trevor Booker kept the Tigers rolling.
"This was one of our better games, if not our best game of the year," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said.
After Dave Bliss' inside shot brought Georgia within four at the start of the second half, Hamilton began a decisive 13-3 run with a 3-pointer. Booker and Sam Perry followed with baskets and Hamilton broke ahead of the pack for a layup. Two minutes later, Hamilton closed the stretch with bucket and the Tigers led 47-33.
Georgia closed to 62-55 with 3:34 to go on Terrance Woodbury's fourth 3-pointer. But Clemson outscored the Bulldogs 13-5 the rest of the way for its second-best opening in school history.
Last year's start came to a crushing halt against Georgia on the news that Mays was academically ineligible. He did not play again and the Tigers lost 10 of their next 13 games.
Purnell doesn't expect the same slide this season.
He says the team's stepped-up schedule -- it has already beaten three Southeastern Conference teams in the Bulldogs, Mississippi State and South Carolina, along with Minnesota of the Big Ten -- has helped its success this year. The biggest factor, though, is that the Tigers are a year older.
"There's no secret that if you've got experienced guards and perimeter players, you're better," Purnell said. "You got young guys, I don't care how talented they are, you're going to put yourself in a position to lose more often than" win.
The Bulldogs lost their second straight after winning seven in a row. Leading scorer Mike Mercer struggled with his shot for the second consecutive game. He went 6-for-13 to finish with 13 points after going 0-of-10 from the field in a loss to Georgia Tech.
Rivers finished with 13 points and Mays had nine for Clemson, which had five players score in double figures. Cliff Hammonds had 13 points and Perry scored 10.
"We've got guys who can do a lot of things," Mays said. "We have to play that way if we want to keep going."
About the only thing that didn't go well for Hamilton on his birthday -- he turned 22 -- was the hard elbow he took above his left eye. Luckily, he says, "I already had stitches there so they just reopened."
Woodbury scored 14 points for Georgia, which finished with a season-high 26 turnovers.
"We haven't taken care of the ball as well as we could this year, but today was exceptionally bad," Georgia coach Dennis Felton said.
Clemson found its game in the first half while Mays sat with two early fouls.
The Bulldogs cut it to 23-21 on two straight 3-pointers by Woodbury before the Tigers put together a 9-2 run. Perry started the surge with an inside basket then tipped in Rivers' miss. Rivers followed with a 3, then stripped the ball from Georgia's Steve Newman and batted it ahead to Hammonds for an easy layup and a 32-23 lead.
Clemson led 34-28 at halftime despite going 3-for-12 from the free-throw line. They came in eleventh out of the 12 Atlantic Coast Conference teams in foul shooting. They finished 10-for-22 from the line for the game.
Still, Hamilton was pleased with the effort and execution he saw out of the Tigers. With a game against Georgia State remaining before they jump into ACC play, Hamilton can see the team's success continuing. "We're really well-rounded as a team," he said. "We have complete trust in each other."
