Brownell hopes Clemson is back to being themselves after win over Wake Forest

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Chase Hunter’s heave in Colonial Life Arena fell just short of the rim, as did the Tigers’ hopes of an overtime victory.

Once again, Brad Brownell’s groups took heavy steps off the hardwood, forced to embrace another tough back-and-forth loss.

Days earlier, the Tigers went wire-to-wire with Memphis, hoping to avenge a physical loss from last season. Clemson led by five with a minute left, but the visiting Tigers threw a flurry of punches in the 11th hour, sending the game to overtime. Memphis stormed through the extra five minutes, taking the win with them.

Brownell knew his team was hurting, and they didn’t have much time to accept the reality of the loss.

Clemson had spent the earlier portion of the season wearing teams down in the second half with their brand of basketball. Wins over San Francisco, Penn State, and Kentucky were examples of a group learning to play together in big moments.

Losses to Memphis and South Carolina served as reminders there’s still plenty of room for growth.

“The Memphis game really took a lot out of us,” Brownell said. “We fought back and we took a lead and had a chance to win it, and they made a couple of big-time plays. It felt like you kinda gave it away. That one was hard. And then you gotta turn it around against South Carolina in a rivalry game with the building on fire. That was really tough for us.”

Before the South Carolina matchup, Brownell said that this team was going to find out what they were really made of, and maybe that answer is still ongoing.

He does know after a tough stretch of honesty of tape, and getting after it in practice, his group rediscovered what made them special.

“We had the day off after South Carolina, which was good to get away from each other. We had a couple of tough days. We watched a lot of film, which some of which wasn’t very pleasing. We practiced really hard on Thursday and met last night, and I’m proud of our team for bouncing back. They are a really good team and second in the league, and we got back to being ourselves.”

Against the Gamecocks and Tigers, some noticeable trends against Clemson were the on-ball defense and the three-point success their opposition was finding.

Memphis and South Carolina combined for 19 made threes, with both units shooting above 40 percent from beyond the arc. Both offenses found open looks consistently, only serving to hurt Brownell’s defense.

Facing Wake Forest, those numbers took a steep nosedive. The Demon Deacons had some open shots, but not as regularly as Clemson’s last two opponents. Wake went 3-for-13 from deep, a stark contrast to the three-point party the Tigers’ opposition had for a four-day stretch.

Conversely, the Tiger offense also found the balance that defined a six-game winning streak. Four players reached double digits, including Jake Heidbreder, who has come alive as of late to provide steady shooting off the bench.

Clemson is now in the middle of a ten-day break, sitting at 10-3 with plenty of optimism heading into the meat of conference play. The Tigers resume action on Jan. 1 hosting Stanford (4 p.m./ACCN).

The rediscovery of themselves against Wake Forest will provide a positive note to sit on, as Brownell hopes that charge can take them all the way to March. Slowly but surely, all eyes will be squarely on the results in Littlejohn, and once again, this may be a team capable of special things.

Brownell’s group hit some slight turbulence in early December, but he hopes some rest into the New Year can provide smooth sailing into the thick of ACC play.

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