Clemson's second-half rally falls short at Georgia Tech

Clemson lost its fourth consecutive road game and to 2-6 on the season in road games.

by TigerNet Staff - Sat Feb 05 16:05:55 GMT-04:00 2022

A Clemson men’s basketball team second-half rally fell short in a 69-64 loss at Georgia Tech Saturday, dropping a fourth consecutive road game and to 4-8 away from Littlejohn Coliseum this season.

The Tigers fell to 12-10 on the season and 4-7 in ACC play, while the Yellow Jackets, which had lost four of their previous five conference games, notched a third ACC win of the season (10-12, 3-8).

In the first half, Clemson was on the wrong side of a lengthy scoring drought, a bad run of turnovers and some Yellow Jackets offensive efficiency.

Georgia Tech built out a lead to as much as 16 points over a 16-0 run in the midst of a 24-2 run overall. Clemson was held without a point for nearly seven minutes during the first half.

Struggling against a Yellow Jackets zone defense, the Tigers missed their first eight 3-point attempts and committed 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes. Georgia Tech knocked down five from beyond the arc and scored 17 points off of turnovers in the first session.

"Too many turnovers. Really disappointed in the way we passed the ball today. We got timid," Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. "The zone bothered us. It’s more extended a little more aggressive and a lot more arms and legs and they’re kinda forcing you into some – and I think being smaller at times, our smaller guards had trouble seeing around things and getting the ball to places. And then it was hard to get them calmed down. We finally got to halftime and took a deep breath and tried to tell everybody to relax."

Al-Amir Dawes did hit Clemson’s last 3-point attempt of the first half and the first two of the second to help cut the Yellow Jackets lead down to five early. Five quick points and an assist from Deivon Smith extended it right back out to double-digits, however.

PJ Hall extended his run of double-digit scoring games to 21 contests with a better effort in the second half, tallying 16 of his 18 points. A Hall jumper and Dawes connecting on his and Clemson’s fourth 3-pointer of the game cut the Yellow Jackets’ advantage back to eight points with seven minutes to go.

Dawes’ (and Clemson’s) fifth 3-pointer made it a six-point game with just under five left. It was answered with another trey by Georgia Tech’s Jordan Usher after a timeout. Another Dawes 3-pointer brought Clemson back within striking distance and a David Collins jumper made it a 4-point game with a minute to go.

Georgia Tech’s Smith hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line shortly after and that was answered by two made free throw attempts from Clemson’s Collins for a 3-point deficit with 20 seconds left.

Down four, Hall missed a 3-point attempt in the final seconds and Georgia Tech sealed the game at the free throw line.

Dawes finished with 18 points off of six 3-pointers. The rest of the Tigers shot 0-14 from beyond the arc.

"PJ wasn’t very good in the first half," Brownell said of his injured floor leader Hall (foot), "and again, it’s so hard because he didn’t practice the last two days and that’s just hard to be good. You’re going out there and he looks slow and looks like he didn’t have any pop to him and then he comes back from halftime and he looks great. Kind of got his legs under him and got a deep breath and relaxed and made a shot and got in there and played an incredible second half.

"But this is a game there were too many turnovers, especially by our guards. Got to get it around guys and got to get it into tight spaces and we just didn’t do that. We did some decent things defensively…Give their kids credit…We made a couple runs in the second half. We didn’t give in.

"We played much better, but they (Georgia Tech) finished the game. They did the right things to finish the game and deserved to win today."

Clemson won 75-69 on Wednesday over Florida State at home without trailing once. Senior starting forward Hunter Tyson suffered a broken clavicle in the win that has him out indefinitely now.

Clemson returns home for three games in a row next week starting on Tuesday in a 6 p.m. tipoff versus North Carolina (ACCN).