Tigers see another second-half lead erased in ACC opener loss at Miami |
Clemson surrendered another sizable second-half lead to drop its road ACC opener at Miami Saturday, 80-75.
The Tigers led by as much as nine points with five to go before the Hurricanes ran off 11 unanswered points, aided by a season-high in 3-pointers (11). Clemson committed five turnovers in a just over four-minute stretch of that Miami run. After a 4-0 start, the Tigers have lost 4-of-5 and fell to 1-4 away from the friendly confines of Littlejohn Coliseum. Clemson had double-digit second-half leads against St. Bonaventure and West Virginia in the Charleston Classic in that stretch that also resulted in defeat. Clemson (5-4) shot well -- particularly from beyond the arc -- to a six-point halftime edge. The Tigers knocked down 7-of-12 from the perimeter, from five different players. Two in that mix were David Collins and Chase Hunter, who tied PJ Hall for a team-best eight points at the break. Collins’ trey on Clemson’s final possession of the first half extended the Tigers’ lead to its largest of the game at that point. Clemson largely controlled the action out of the gates in the second half and built the lead out to eight with 12 minutes to go on another Hunter 3-pointer. The sophomore Hunter scored a career-high 15 points. While the 3-point shooting cooled in the second session, Hall was a steady source for points and finished with a team-best 18 points. A drive by Miami’s Kameron McGusty cut the Clemson lead to two points with nine to go and the Hurricanes had a shot to tie or take the lead a possession later that came up empty. From there, Miami (6-3) went into a FG scoring drought of nearly four minutes as Clemson tried to pull away, but an 11-0 Hurricanes run -- a Jordan Miller 3-pointer putting Miami on top -- flipped the game to a 73-70 Miami advantage with 2 1/2 minutes to go. That scoring run extended to 15-2 Miami with less than 20 seconds left as the Hurricanes finished out the win. Sam Waardenburg led Miami with 18 points. "We let one get away. I'm hurt right now for our guys," Tigers head coach Brad Brownell said postgame. "We're not doing enough to help them in some ways. This was hard because we played really well for most of the game. We're having a hard time getting stops when we really need them and a couple times at the end of games when we get behind and need a bucket - sometimes we get it and sometimes we don't. I thought our defense let us down in the second half of this game... "Offensively, our passing has not been very good. About a month ago, we've been doing basic, fundamental passing drills for the first 15 minutes of practice and every once in a while it rears its head. And today they did a good job of making an adjustment of fronting the post a little bit and we had a hard time getting the ball to PJ. We threw it away probably five times in the second half trying to feed him. Those possessions where you don't get a shot are really tough in these games." Clemson hit only two second-half 3-pointers. The Tigers return to action next Saturday in Atlanta's State Farm Arena versus Drake as part of the Holiday Hoopsgiving event (2 p.m./ACCN).
Upgrade Your Account
Unlock premium boards and exclusive features (e.g. ad-free) by upgrading your account today.
Upgrade Now
