ATLANTA- Clemson brought fire and intensity to Atlanta as they used sharpshooting from three to down the Jackets 81-57 on Wednesday night. The win also avenged a double-overtime loss at Clemson earlier this season in a major upset at the time.
The Jackets struggled to defend Clemson’s perimeter shooting as the Tigers ended the night shooting 14 for 29 (48.3%) from the arc and 31-58 (53.4%) from the field.
Damon Stoudamire fell to 11-16 in his first season as Georgia Tech's head coach and 4-12 in ACC play while Clemson improved to 18-8 and 8-7 in ACC play. Stoudamire was blunt in his assessment of the performance of his team after the game.
“I think it was one of those games where our group thought it was going to be easy and they hit three and we hit threes. They forgot the game plan and when you do that against a team like Clemson they pound you. Give them credit, with them making shots we had to make an adjustment or two in the second half, but it never materialized. We’ve got five games left and it gets tricky. It is easy to see the end, but at the same time when you get to a point on the floor in a game, I’ve been on both sides of these, from Clemson’s standpoint you say play the right way and make the extra pass and no one gets hurt," Stoudamire said. "When you are on the other side you want to see who has a competitive spirit. The last eight minutes of the game I felt like we quit. I am not alright with it, but I’m alright with it. It is on me and I’m alright with that. We have a name on the front of the jersey and one of the back. The reason why I get up every day to be successful when you look at the Georgia Tech record book you don’t want to be known as the losing team. It is as simple as that."
Clemson big man Ian Schieffelin who missed a key free throw in the Tech win at Clemson led all scorers with 19 points on 8-12 shooting including 3-4 from three.
Guard Chase Hunter added 18 points in his return to Atlanta with six rebounds and six assists. PJ Hall was held to 11 points all in the first half for the Tigers
“I go into every game with the same mindset to play hard, but with my family and friends here I was a little more fired up to play hard here,” Hunter said.
Hall and Schieffelin’s three-point shooting put Clemson up early.
“They made some shots early from guys we weren’t anticipating and that kind of changed the game,” senior Tech guard Kyle Sturdivant said. “They made some shots early and we should’ve adjusted.
Sturdivant led Tech scorers with 14 points on 4-10 shooting off the bench.
Sophomore forward Tafara Gapare was the only other Jacket in double-figures scoring with 10 points, he added seven rebounds as well.
“He is probably a guy who hates me, I’m a little different. If I can get on a kid to make him better and I’m the one yelling at him and screaming at him to be the motivator, I’m alright with that. If that is what I have to do. He has his moments, but I want me. He is always this close to having everyone out of their seats with a big play. He did play well and had his moments, but he has a little more in him. You just have to play hard every play,” Stoudamire said of Gapare. “He has to get consistent playing hard every play, he has his moments, but he struggles at time. I’ll give him credit he fought those big boys today and made some big-time plays. I’m happy with Tafara, but he can’t be satisfied with this.
Miles Kelly scored his 1,000 career point on a free throw in the second half of the game. He was held to eight points of which six came in the first two-and-a-half minutes.
“I’m blessed to hit that career mark and it is something I worked really hard for and something I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve been blessed,” Kelly said.
The Jackets shot just 30.2 percent from the field and 6-21 (28.6%) from the three in the game, but hit 19-21 free throws to make the score slightly better than it could’ve been. Clemson had 21 assists compared to just six for the Yellow Jackets. Tech had zero steals and nine turnovers as well. Clemson turned the ball over just five times in the game with only two in the second half.
Clemson shot 9-18 in the first half from three opening 5-of-6 from the arc to put the Jackets in the hole by 10 points early. The Jackets trailed by as many as 17 points before clawing back in the final 44 seconds of the half to make it a 12-point deficit 43-31. Ian Schieffelin and P.J. Hall combined in the first half for 24 points and 6-6 from three.
“We’ve had some heartbreaking losses and against Virginia and NC State, I’m proud of our group and they responded and we had a very difficult film session on Monday. I challenged our older guys and it is such a long season where it is hard to play well all season and not to get down. I tried to get our guys to think back to November and early December and how we played,” Brownell said.
GAME SUMMARY
Both teams exchanged threes to open the game, but Clemson added three more to open up a 10-point lead on a 10-0 run 19-9 leading to a Stoudamire timeout with 15:30 remaining in the half. The Tigers extended the run to 14-0 before Gapare ended it with a floater. Tech went on a 6-0 run to close the lead to eight points at the second media timeout with 10:49 remaining. The lead stayed at eight at the third media timeout 30-22 with 5:52 remaining. Tech gave up a couple of additional threes and trailed 43-31 at the half after trailing by 17 with 44 seconds left. Kyle Sturdivant hit a three and Tafara Gapare hit a layup after a Baye Ndongo block at the buzzer to cut the lead to 12.
Clemson took advantage of a slow start by the Jackets to take a 47-33 at the first media timeout. The Jackets continued to scuffle offensively trailing 54-37 at the second media timeout with 11:54 remaining in the game. Tech went nearly four minutes without a field goal late in the half allowing the Tigers to extend their lead to 26 with 3:06 remaining 77-51.
UP NEXT
Georgia Tech travels to Miami to face the Hurricanes who have lost five in a row after falling to Duke on Wednesday night at 4 pm.
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