Clemson drops second ACC road game at Syracuse

by TigerNet Staff - Wed Jan 09 22:11:11 GMT-04:00 2019

Syracuse took control early and kept a late Clemson rally at bay to down the Tigers, 61-53, at the Carrier Dome on Wednesday.

Clemson (10-5) dropped to 0-2 in ACC play after losing its opener at No. 1 Duke last week.

Syracuse (11-4) led by as much as 15 points in the second half but the Tigers cut the lead to six points thanks to 11-straight points from senior guard Marcquise Reed with under five to go. An open layup too hard off the backboard from Reed marked the end of the rally with a little over three minutes left, however, and the Orange pulled away to a comfortable lead.

Reed led Clemson in scoring with 16 points, while Elijah Thomas was the only other Tiger in double-figures scoring (13). The Tigers shot 35.8 percent from the field and 25 percent from three (5-of-20).

The Tigers will host No. 4 Virginia on Saturday at noon, which will be directly after the football National Championship parade and in-stadium celebration.

Notes: Marcquise Reed passed former teammate Donte Grantham on Clemson’s all-time scoring list … Reed now ranks 33rd overall with 1,114 points … he remains 11 points shy of passing Jerry Pryor (1985-89) for 32nd all time … Reed became just the 11th player in program history to amass at least 1,000 points, 300 rebounds, 200 assists and 100 steals in a career … Reed posted three more steals and remains 12 shy of tying Bobby Conrad (1976-80) for 15th all-time in Clemson history … Reed’s 16 points marked his 83rd career double-digit scoring game of his career (83-out-of-115 career games) … Elijah Thomas led the Tigers with seven rebounds and now has 494 for his Clemson career … Thomas remains 110 boards shy of tying Horace Wyatt (1978-82) for 25th on the all-time list in program history … Shelton Mitchell is 86 points away from 1,000points in his Clemson career.