A second half comeback effort from the visiting Clemson Tigers was thwarted by the North Carolina Tar Heels on Tuesday night. The game marked the 59^th straight UNC home win over Clemson, but the Tigers went down with an incredible fight.
The Tar Heels came out of the gates hot, taking an 18-5 lead in the first nine minutes, including a run of 13 unanswered points. For much of the first half, nothing went right on either side of the ball for Clemson. The offense was played at a breakneck pace, which fell perfectly into the Tar Heels’ favor. Clemson’s offensive pace (an estimate of possessions per 40 minutes) ranks 247^th in the nation, compared to North Carolina’s 58^th pace-ranked offense. The Tigers are not a team built to play downhill, and when they tried to do so they ended up making unforced errors on the offensive end in the form of turnovers, which fueled the Tar Heels transition-oriented offense.
Clemson’s offense often revolves around a 4-out 1-in look, in which four players stand above the three-point line while another player (usually Donte Grantham or Elijah Thomas) sets ball-screens for the ballhandler, intended to allow him to shed his defender and penetrate the paint, at which point the defense will either collapse around him, affording one of the players outside on the three-point line an open shot, or stay on their assigned man, which allows the ballhandler to finish around the basket. This offense often requires multiple attempts at penetration and accounts for why the Tigers play at a slower pace: they are often focused on taking either an easy layup or an uncontested three. While the Tar Heels’ did play outstanding perimeter defense in the first half, many of the shots taken by Clemson during the first half were rushed jump shots taken with plenty of time remaining on the shot clock with which the offense could have tried to get a better look.
The second half, however, felt like completely different ball game. Nursing a 23-38 deficit at the half, Shelton Mitchell missed a three-pointer to start the second half. Over the next 11 minutes of game time, the Tigers would not miss a single one of their 15 shots. The scoring run trimmed the deficit down to just two points on three separate occasions and was powered by a balanced offensive attack. Elijah Thomas and Marcquise Reed caught fire during the run, finishing the game with 16 and 21 points respectively. Thomas was often fed the ball in the post where he was able to score with ease. Reed made high-iq plays at every opportunity, instinctively reacting to whatever the defense was giving him. If his defender pressed him on the perimeter, Reed was able to attack the basket. If the defender sagged off him, Reed made the Tar Heels pay by burying three consecutive three-point shots. Donte Grantham had a poor night shooting the ball, going 1-9 in the game. Grantham is a veteran though, and found other way to make an impact on the game, compiling a stat line of three rebounds, one steal, one block, and a team-high five assists. After rallying back into the game, The Clemson hot-spell wore off and the Tar Heels pulled away in the final minutes, walking away with an important home victory.
Defensively, the Tigers found it hard to stop North Carolina from scoring, even during the second-half comeback. Players were often caught either overplaying or underplaying their assignments. While overplaying and pressing their assignment too hard, the defenders often fell for pump fakes and jab steps, falling a step behind and giving North Carolina easy points. While underplaying, the Clemson defenders would get caught going under screens, giving up easy looks to the Tar Heels, who shot the lights out at 48 percent from three on the night. Defense is a calling card for this Clemson team, but it appeared as though the hot start from Carolina shook their confidence from the start, and the rest of the night was spent playing catch-up.
This was probably the toughest matchup that Clemson has faced this season—taking on a basketball blue-blood on the road, where Clemson had not won in 58 straight games. After surrendering such a large lead so early in the game, many teams would likely have given up and focused on the next game on the schedule. Instead, the Tigers demonstrated remarkable resilience and proved to the country that even in a lopsided matchup in a hostile environment, no lead is safe, and no team is safe. This Clemson team has the veteran players necessary to play in the insanely competitive ACC and are discovering new recipes for success every night. The team might not have won, but the effort that they showed counts for something. There is still plenty of conference play left for Clemson, with an incredibly strong schedule in the coming weeks including a road trip to No. 2 Virginia, a home game with No. 5 Duke, and a home rematch with the Tar Heels. If the Tigers can weather the storm that is the ACC and come away with some marquee wins, Clemson might just be trying on slippers come March.