Clemson’s last-second shot falls short as Tigers fall to North Carolina Tar Heels
Clemson began its rigorous three-game home stretch with a 79-77 loss to North Carolina on Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.
The game went down to the wire with Brady Manek’s inside layup breaking the 77-77 tie with three seconds remaining. After a timeout, David Collins — who ended the night with 10 points — got a good look from 3. But his shot didn’t fall. Clemson coach Brad Brownell fell to his knees as his team dropped the heartbreaker to UNC.
“We got a great look,” he said. “I’m standing right behind it. It’s right on line, it’s just short, and Leaky (Black) contested great. You get a chance to win. The ball’s in the air. You got it on the rim. You’ve got a chance. We just didn’t make it.”
The Tigers opened the game against the Tar Heels with an 8-0 lead but had lulls throughout the game that allowed UNC to take the lead by the end of the first half.
When UNC jumped ahead by nine in the second half the Tigers fought back, but could never sustain a lead.
Here are three takeaways from the Tigers’ loss:
Foul trouble
In the first minute of the second half, Clemson and UNC combined to go 5-for-6 from the free throw line. Collins received his third foul with 19:32 reaming in the game. He then picked up a fourth with 10:51 left, prompting Brownell to pull him. Collins came back five minutes later and tied the game at 68 with 5:05 left on the clock. He also drew a charge on Armando Bacot with about one minute left, causing the Tar Heels post player to foul out. Bacot ended the game with a team-leading 24 points for UNC.
The Tar Heels’ foul trouble allowed the Tigers to shoot 17 free throws in the final 20 minutes, going 19-for-21 from the charity stripe on the night.
Relying on the bench
With Hunter Tyson out, Clemson lost one of its reserves in Naz Bohannon, who started in place of Tyson. Alex Hemenway and Ian Schieffelin came in and provided the Tigers with a spark midway through the second half.
Down 39-30, Schieffelin and Hemenway combined for 14 points in about a three-minute span to bring the Tigers within one, 45-44, with 14:12 on the clock. Schieffelin and Hemenway finished with 12 and eight points, respectively.
Quick turnaround
Clemson didn’t play a clean game, but showed its grit, taking North Carolina down to the wire before falling in the final seconds. The Tigers will now have to turn their attention to ninth-ranked Duke coming to town for a 6 p.m. game Thursday, then Notre Dame two days later.
Much like against North Carolina, the last time the Tigers and Blue Devils played, it ended up coming down to the final few seconds with Duke winning 71-69. The Blue Devils were without Trevor Keels, their second-leading scorer, then and now Clemson will be without one of its top players in Tyson.
“I’ve got to go refresh because we’ve played some games since then, but there will be some positives from the game, absolutely, that we’ll use to try to emphasize to our players that hey, this is really good and this is what we’ve got to continue to do to have a chance next time,” Brownell said. “There will be one or two things, this was not as good and we’ve got to tweak this and we’ve got to improve this.”
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 8:45 PM.
