With a decisive 80-47 Thursday loss against No. 4 Florida State (24-4 (12-2 ACC)), followed by a heartbreaking Saturday loss versus No. 7 Notre Dame (25-3 (13-1 ACC)) at home, It has been a rough week for the Tigers, now 14-14 (3-12 ACC).
It an astonishingly close game against the Fighting Irish, then standing 11-1 in conference play, two Tigers led the game with career-high scores, according to ESPN. Lead scorer Nelly Perry led the Tigers with a career-best 24 points and six assists, while Kobi Thornton, given considerably less time on the floor, closely followed with a career-high 20 points, a game-high nine rebounds and a team-high FG completion of 8-11 or 72.7 percent, far better than the Clemson average on the night of 29-69 or 42.0 percent. The duo helped to close a 17-point deficit to just two with 11.5 seconds left before Notre Dame pulled away slightly with two foul shots, the last points of the game.
Notre Dame’s Marina Mabrey carried her team with a career-high 29 points, according to ESPN, dwarfing the next highest Irish score of 15 points. She scored 24 of her points in the second half, making 58.5 percent of Notre Dame’s 41 points in the last two periods.
Despite the Irish’s victory, their sloppy play was apparent, and almost cost them a break in their 11 game ACC win streak; they had 14 turnovers to Clemson’s nine, 17 personal fouls to Clemson’s 15 and failed to capitalize on their 42 rebounds, only making three more points than Clemson — who had 32 rebounds — in field goals.
Saturday’s game pitted a less than well-rested Clemson team against the tired Seminoles, for whom it was their third game in just six days. Even with the absence of leading scorer Shakayla Thomas for FSU — who averages 15 points per game to Perry’s 12.5 — the Seminoles handily defeated the Tigers in their 16th straight victory over Clemson.
Perry was held to seven points while Danielle Edwards led the Tigers with 11 points. Five players, including Aliyah Collier, attempted shots and made none. Collier, who had a 52.4 percent FG completion for the season as of Feb. 17, according to the Clemson Combined Team Statistics, was the worst of the five, going 0-6 in her field goal attempts.
Clemson shot 16-56 (28.6 percent) to FSU’s 27-51 (52.9 percent); the Tigers missed 11 of their first 12 shots, ending the first quarter at a dismal 23-4, and seemed to never recover from the letdown. The Tigers also doubled the Seminoles’ personal fouls 26 to 13. FSU could’ve capitalized on this but had a decidedly weak performance from the charity stripe, going only 23-37 (62.2 percent) to Clemson’s 13-15 (86.7 percent).
FSU showed their depth with five players scoring at least nine points, and both Ivey Slaughter and Brittany Brown making 14 points. FSU gave an uncharacteristic final show of strength in the fourth quarter netting 24 points to Clemson’s 16, showing the Tigers’ lack of offense was coupled with a sluggish defense.
The Tigers will look to repeat history when they play at Georgia Tech this Thursday, Feb. 23. The Tigers broke their 41-game ACC losing streak against the Yellow Jackets last month in a clincher 62-61 victory, but will have to step up their game to counterbalance the loss of their home field advantage. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion.