Third-seeded Clemson took a shaky first step in pursuit of its first Atlantic Coast Conference title as Chase Hunter scored 21 points in a 57-54 quarterfinal victory over sixth-seeded SMU on Thursday in Charlotte,

In doing so, the Tigers narrowly avoided going one and done in back-to-back ACC Tournaments after getting routed by Boston College in their opener last year. They also kept their chances of a league title and a top 4 NCAA Tournament seed alive.

Chase Hunter scored 21 points, Jaeden Zackery added 11 points and No. 10 Clemson battled back to beat SMU 57-54 for its ninth straight win to reach the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals.