Grit after dark: Clemson MBB upsets No. 4 Kentucky in late-night showdown
The win came late, but it was worth the wait.
The Clemson men’s basketball team has its signature victory of the season after knocking off Kentucky 70-66 on Tuesday night in a very, very late iteration of the night games at Littlejohn Coliseum the program refers to as “Grit After Dark.”
Forward Ian Schieffelin had a double-double with 11 points and a career-high 20 rebounds and three other players scored in double figures as the Tigers dealt No. 4 Kentucky its first loss of the season and earned their best victory of 2024-25.
Coach Brad Brownell’s Tigers moved to 8-1 and should earn their first AP Top 25 ranking of the season next week, while Kentucky dropped to 7-1.
It all went down during a thrilling 2024 SEC/ACC Challenge game broadcast on ESPN that didn’t tip off until 9:30 p.m. and didn’t go final until midnight on the dot.
“I thought it was a great basketball game,” Brownell said postgame. “Just competitiveness. If you like toughness and guys really getting after each other, this was what it was. It wasn’t always pretty basketball.”
Clemson led 66-62 with 25.5 seconds remaining before guard Chase Hunter sank two free throws to put the Tigers up six points. Kentucky then went 1-2 on free throws (68-63) and got the ball back after the second free throw, a miss, went off Clemson.
Inbounding from under their own basket, the Wildcats missed their first 3-pointer but got a rebound and hit a second attempt with 2.2 seconds remaining (68-66).
Kentucky fouled Hunter again, and he iced the game from there with two free throws. As UK’s full-court heave fell short at the buzzer, fans — some of whom had lined up four hours early to get into Tuesday’s game, which had a sellout crowd of 9,000 people — joyfully stormed the court and mobbed the team.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Schieffelin said, grinning. “I was getting a little scared, though. I got stuck in the middle for a while and couldn’t see anything.”
Clemson, per ESPN, became only the third team in the AP poll era to win four or more consecutive games against AP Top 5 opponents — all while unranked.
Unranked Tigers teams have now beaten No. 3 Duke and No. 5 Louisville in 2020, No. 3 UNC last season and No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday in their latest flex of, well, grit.
“People that watched this game, people that came, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to come play basketball here,” Brownell said. “This is an unbelievable environment.”
Game recap
Kentucky, which is in its first season under coach Mark Pope, initially built up a six-point lead early in the first half and led 28-23 with 5:45 to go until the break.
But the Tigers roared back with a 14-2 run over the game’s final five minutes to take their largest lead of the contest — seven points, 37-30 — into the locker room at Littlejohn Coliseum, with players skipping and hyping up the crowd on their jog in.
Clemson’s run featured a ton of hustle plays from Schieffelin (who had nine points, 13 rebounds and six offensive rebounds in the first half alone) and a major backboard-pinning block from forward Chauncey Wiggins.
Kentucky, one of the nation’s 3-point shooting offenses nationally, was just 28.6% behind the arc in the first half and not much better on field goals (31.3%).
That was a sign of things to come. The Wildcats entered Tuesday ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring offense (96.7 points per game) and had gone over 100 points in four of their first seven games of this post-John Calipari season.
But Clemson held Kentucky 30 points below its season average and to its worst field goal percentage and 3-point percentage in any game this year.
“We never got into a great flow,” Pope said. “Credit to Clemson for that.”
The teams traded buckets through most of the second half — there were four ties and 13 total lead changes on Tuesday — until Clemson got a little separation with a 59-54 lead with eight minutes left, thanks to a rare three from center Viktor Lakhin.
The Tigers’ lead reached a game-high eight points at the 4:20 mark (66-58) after a tough and-one layup from Boston College transfer guard Jaeden Zackery.
Clemson hung on from there to get its first ranked win of the season and its highest ranked non-conference win ever in terms of opponent’s ranking. The Tigers’ previous best was a 62-57 win over No. 6 South Carolina in 1997.
Zackery (13 points), Wiggins (12 points) and Hunter (10 points) joined Schieffelin in double figures and the Tigers got 15 bench points, too.
That was big on a night when Clemson’s two leading scorers, Hunter and Schieffelin, shot 2-8 and 4-20 from the field, respectively.
Schieffelin, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, made up for his misses with a career-high 20 rebounds (eight offensive) and four assists. He became the first Clemson player to grab 20 boards in a game since Harold Jamison against Florida State in 1999.
The win also boosted Clemson five spots from No. 18 to No. 13 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which are crucial for NCAA Tournament placement, and gave them a second straight Quad 1 win after last week’s neutral-site victory against Penn State.
“I mean, it’s terrific to have Kentucky come to your arena,” Brownell said. “And I know there was some blue in there, but there was a heck of a lot of orange.”
Next four Clemson basketball games
Saturday Dec. 7: at Miami (12 p.m., ESPN2)
Saturday Dec. 14: vs. Memphis (11 a.m., ESPN2)
Tuesday Dec. 17: at South Carolina (7 p.m., SECN)
Saturday Dec. 21: vs. Wake Forest (2:30 p.m., ESPN)
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 12:01 AM.
