Clemson Basketball: Tigers fall to Gamecocks on last second shot

Clemson basketball battled all night in Columbia, but South Carolina’s Chico Carter hit a jumper with 8 tenths of a second left to give the Gamecocks a 60-58 win as the Tigers fell to 1-1 on the season and South Carolina moved to 2-0.

Down by 9 at the half, Clemson made comeback after comeback, but much like most of the Brownell era, the team just could not get over the hump.

Down by 2 Hunter Tyson missed a wide-open 3 with just over 6 minutes left, which was emblematic of the Tigers struggles as they got close.

Clemson finally tied the game with 7.8 seconds to go on two clutch Brevin Galloway free throws, only to see the well-defended Carter nail the jumper with under a second left, sealing the Tigers fate.

The good news for Clemson is P.J. Hall played and played well, scoring 15 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in 22 minutes of action off the bench.

Chase Hunter and Galloway scored 13 each, while Hunter Tyson chipped in 10.

Clemson was beaten badly on the boards, being outrebounded 50-32 on the evening, including 19 offensive rebounds by the Gamecocks.

Clemson basketball had plenty of chances to beat South Carolina Friday evening

It was a disappointing loss for the Tigers, who had multiple cold streaks in the first half and found themselves down by 9 at the break despite leading for just over half of the period.

Clemson shot only 37.7% from the field on the night, but amazingly that was better than South Carolina’s 34.4%, the difference being South Carolina got three more shots up and made three more three-point shots than the Tigers.

In Monday’s win over The Citadel the only bench player to score for Clemson was Ian Schieffelin and tonight P.J. Hall’s 15 points were it, except for a Chauncey Wiggins dunk as Josh Beadle, Schieffelin, Dillon Hunter and R.J. Godfrey were scoreless in a combined 41 minutes of action and were 0-11 from the floor.

Up next, Clemson hosts USC Upstate Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in Littlejohn Coliseum.