Clemson Men’s Basketball: Tigers pummeled in Atlanta, 76-58

With Clemson Men’s Basketball off to a hot shooting start to start the 2022-2023 season, I had wondered how they would shoot away from Littlejohn Coliseum when taking on Loyola Chicago in the Holiday Hoopsgiving game in Atlanta.

The answer was not good.  Not good at all.

As a team, the Tigers shot 38.9% from the field and only 14.3% from three-point range (3 for 21) on the night and were never really in the game as the Ramblers of the Atlantic 10 Conference rambled past the Tigers 76-58.

The Tigers came into the game at 42% from the three-point range which was good enough for the 6th-best mark in the nation and while that number is unsustainable as the competition ramps up, the performance was not expected.

Brevin Galloway was 2-6 from deep, Chase Hunter 1 for 5, Hunter Tyson 0 for 5, Alex Hemenway 0 for 2, and P.J. Hall, Ian Schieffelin and Chauncey Wiggins all 0-1.

Hunter led the Tigers with 13 points, Galloway chipped in 12 and Hunter had 10 and led Clemson with 6 rebounds.

On the flip side, Loyola Chicago drilled three after three, hitting 12 of 24 as a team, including 4 for 6 from Philip Alston and 5 for 10 from Braden Norris.

Alston finished with 23 points and Norris totaled 19 for the Ramblers.

Loyola finished the game shooting 56.3% from the field on 27 of 48 shooting, which means they shot 15 of 21 (71.4%) on two-point shots, including 8 of 10 on layups.

This was a bad loss for Clemson, both in optics and in reality, as it dropped the Tigers 17 spots to No. 71 in the KenPom.com rankings.

Those same rankings now project the Tigers to finish 18-13 overall and 11-9 in the ACC.

Clemson Men’s Basketball has the week off for finals before facing Richmond next Saturday

Clemson has the week off for final exams and will next face the Richmond Spiders at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville as part of the Greenville Winter Invitational next Saturday at 7 p.m.

Richmond is also a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference and is 4-5 after a 30-point win over Drake on Saturday.

The Spiders are ranked No. 89 in the KenPom.com rankings.