Despite being up by nine points with less than two minutes left in regulation, the Clemson men’s basketball team fell to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in a hard-fought ACC contest at Littlejohn Coliseum on Tuesday night, losing 93-90 in double overtime.
After Clemson took an early lead, the Yellow Jackets quickly found their stride and kept the score close the entire night. Ending the first half down by two, Georgia Tech stayed consistent in the second. Led by guard Naithan George, who scored 20 points on the night, the Yellow Jackets continued to follow close behind the Tigers.
With one minute and 43 seconds left in the second half, The Tigers were up nine points with firm control of the game. That was until Georgia Tech clawed back, and George hit a three-pointer with two seconds left to force extra time.
In the first overtime period, free throws drove up the score for each team, but misses from beyond the arc caused the Tigers to fall down by three points with 1:14 left. A layup by Ian Schieffelin and a turnover by Georgia Tech allowed Clemson center PJ Hall to get to the charity stripe, where he made one of two free throws to force a second overtime.
In double overtime, the Tigers struggled to find the basket. In those five minutes, they missed seven shots while only sinking one layup as well as six free throws. Conversely, George nailed back-to-back jumpers in the final minutes to take the lead, and after both teams exchanged free throws, the Tigers failed to score a game-tying shot at the buzzer.
Despite it not resulting in a win, Hall and Schieffelin had outstanding nights. Hall scored a career-high 31 points on 11-for-23 shooting from the floor and grabbed 17 rebounds. Schieffelin also had a double-double with 20 points and 15 rebounds.
Their efforts were not enough, however, as Brad Brownell’s team made just three of its 21 attempts from deep.
The inconsistencies from deep, combined with stellar shooting by Georgia Tech guards George and Kowacie Reeves Jr., who made nine combined three-pointers, were the final nails in the coffin. Even with 18 fewer free-throw attempts than the Tigers, the Yellow Jackets made up for it with high-percentage shooting and effective perimeter defense.
“We just got to hang in here,” Brownell said. “We got off to a great start this year. We’ve stumbled here a little bit, but there’s still room to get it figured out. This one hurts because we had a nice win on Saturday. We’re trying to build something, and we didn’t quite close this one out.”
After falling to Georgia Tech, the Tigers suffered their fourth loss in the past five games and sit at 12-5 (2-4 ACC).
The Tigers will be back in action when they travel to Tallahassee, Florida, to face the Florida State Seminoles at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
