Clemson Men's Basketball: Tigers blow late lead, fall in 2 OT

For about 38 and a half minutes of Tuesday's game against Georgia Tech, Clemson Men's Basketball was in pretty good shape.

Up until that point, Damon Stoudamire's Yellow Jacket squad had valiantly fought above their weight, drilling three-point shots, and were hanging around against the Tigers in Littlejohn Coliseum.

A bucket by P.J. Hall put Clemson up by 9 with 1:43 remaining in regulation and all Clemson had to do was play smart down the stretch and make their free throws.

They did neither.

Ten seconds later Hall fouled Tech's Kyle Sturdivant on a three-point shot and Sturdivant nailed all three from the line to cut the lead to 6.

After an empty Tigers possession and a Yellow Jacket three pointer, the lead was down to 3 with 52 seconds left.

With 11 seconds to go Chase Hunter went to the line with Clemson up 70-68 and made the first, before missing the second, leaving the door wide open for Georgia Tech to walk right through, and to their credit the Yellow Jackets did just that, tying the game at 71, before winning in the second overtime.

Hall finished with 31 points and 17 rebounds for Clemson, while Ian Schieffelin totaled 20 points and 15 rebounds.

Chase Hunter contributed 18 and Joe Girard 11 as Clemson put four players in double figures in the game.

Clemson outrebounded Georgia Tech by 12 and hauled in an amazing 22 offensive rebounds in the loss.

The Tigers got very little from their depleted bench, with R.J. Godfrey's 8 points, being the only scoring from a non-starter.

Chauncey Wiggins, who appeared to be coming of age offensively in the last month, took one shot from the field in 15 minutes of playing time and the bench as a whole was 3 for 11 from the field and 2 of 4 from the line.

Clemson Men's Basketball shooting woes continue in latest loss

The Tigers were ultimately doomed by their decision making down the stretch along with poor shooting and missed free throws.

Clemson shot only 41.4% from the field and was 3 of 21 (14.3%) from three-point range for the game, including 5 for 18 (27.8%) from the floor and 0 for 7 from three-point range in the overtimes.

Once a hallmark of Brownell teams, defense has eluded this group, especially at the guard position, where opponent three-point shooters are often wide-open for what are very makable shots in the modern game.

Next up the Tigers travel to Tallahassee to take on the Florida State Seminoles, Saturday January 20th.

The Seminoles are 10-6 overall and 4-1 in the ACC, with wins over Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Notre Dame, along with a loss to North Carolina.

The game is scheduled for 3 p.m. and will be televised on the ACC Network.