Clemson Men’s Basketball: Tigers fall to Hurricanes, 78-74

For all of the things that went right for Clemson Men’s Basketball through the first 22 games of this season, it seems like not much has gone right over the last two and those were on full display in Saturday’s loss to Miami.

This is not a story about luck, though that could have gone better, too, but rather a story of not finishing shots, making crisp passes or paying attention to the details that got them to 18-4.

Despite an up-and-down game, the Tigers were in it late, trailing only 68-65 with 2:50 left, but couldn’t get a stop when needed and appeared to be missing an urgency they played with earlier in the season.

For example, down by 4 with a minute to go, the Tigers lackadaisically walked the ball up the court and took 23 seconds off the clock before P.J. Hall missed a jumper that sealed the Tigers fate for all intents and purposes.

The Tigers outshot Miami from the field and from three-point range, but the Hurricanes had a huge advantage on the boards and correspondingly at the free throw line, but this wasn’t a game about stats.

This was a game about Hunter Tyson failing to get shots in the second half and Chase Hunter being unable to finish multiple trips down the court and this team’s continued failure on the offensive boards.

In fact, the Tigers finished with just two offensive rebounds, the first coming with 9:26 remaining in the game, while the Hurricanes were credited with 9 offensive boards.

Hall had 19 points for the day, Galloway 15 and Tyson chipped in another double-double with a 13/10 effort, but with only two points in the second half, and those came with 9 seconds to play.

It could be that all the minutes played may be catching up with some Tigers and Tyson and Chase Hunter played 38 minutes apiece today.

Clemson Men’s Basketball received several solid efforts off the bench, but it wasn’t enough

The Tigers got solid bench efforts from R.J. Godfrey (10 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds, assist, block) and Ben Middlebrooks (9 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, assist) and Alex Hemenway chipped in 6 and made two threes.

Clemson is off until next Saturday when they travel to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina.