Clemson Men's Basketball drop game against Wake Forest, fall to 6-seed in ACC Tournament

Clemson Men’s Basketball went to Winston-Salem, North Carolina yesterday with a chance to snag a double-bye in the ACC Tournament. Unfortunately, that proved to be beyond their grasp.

The Tigers lost to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons 81-76 on Saturday in their final game of the regular season. PJ Hall led the team with 18 points. Chase Hunter followed closely with 17 points. Ian Schieffelin led with 6 rebounds.

The Tigers trailed early but used a 21-8 run to take the lead in the second half. They couldn’t hang onto it, however, as the Deacons made all but one of their last thirteen field goals to seal their victory.

Clemson’s loss, paired with Pittsburgh’s victory over NC State and Virginia’s win over Georgia Tech, dropped the Tigers to the 6-seed in the tournament. They will play their first game on Wednesday against the winner of the 11-seed Boston College and the 14-seed Miami. They will tip on Tuesday at 7:00 PM.

This year’s ACC Tournament will be held at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.

Clemson Men's Basketball lacks a 'killer instinct'

The Tigers will have to win four games in a row if they were to pull off their first-ever ACC Tournament championship. Under the circumstances, it feels like they will likely play as deep as Friday, but a four-game winning streak is probably too much to expect.

The Tigers have not won four games in a row since they started the season 9-0. While they have been reasonably consistent in the past month, the Tigers haven’t demonstrated a ‘killer instinct’.

The good news is that the results of the ACC Tournament likely won’t hurt their chances of making the NCAA Tournament, but their seed line could definitely be affected. Joe Lunardi had Clemson as a 5-seed before last night’s loss. A couple of wins in the ACC Tournament would likely keep them on that line.

Clemson is scheduled to tip off against the BC/Miami winner at 9:30 PM on Wednesday.